Complaint Review: RTS Group - Kirby Vacuums - Fredericksburg Virginia

It really doesn't matter what you "Pro-Kirby" people say, or what contract has been signed. Kirby violates several labor laws. I know this because I actually went to court over them, and the Dept. of Labor in my state, along with the court, found that this was true. That is why they are no longer able to do business in my county. From what I hear, several STATES are trying to have Kirby barred from doing business. When you LIE to a person during an job interview, and then break labor laws, you can expect to run into legal trouble. I HIGHLY suggest that anyone who has been burned by these criminals, talks to their Attorney General of their respective state.

" I wanted to get paid for the work I had done. I had put my all into working for them for the few days I had worked there. At the interview I was given the impression that if I put in my all, I could get the full $1600"

You thought you were to be paid $1600 for 3 days of work and no sales. You have to be joking. Everyone works hard in the professional world. My wife is a doctor and works 100 hours a week. I am a full time PhD student and work 80 hours a week. And here you are posting on this site that you had to work long hours. I worked at Kirby for 2 years. I left the house a 9 am and came home a 12am most nights. However, I made 600 to a 1000 dollars a week and qualified for pro clubs. You get out what you put into this job.

I bet you work 30 hours a week and make 22, 000 a year. But at least you don't have to work hard.

Hi Everybody!
I would like to share my experience with Kirby Vacuum.

I first heard about the job on Craigslist, the job was very vague, and said something about receptionist, so I thought I would check it out.

They scheduled me for an interview, and they explained the different job openings they had.

They told me how much I could make as a receptionist, and then they showed me how much I could make cleaning carpets.

I CHOSE the cleaning carpets myself, because I wanted to make more money to get out of debt.

I went to orientation Wednesday, listened to the distributer talk about the company,and I was impressed.He told us we don't have to worry about trying to sell them all because we are new, we just have to show the people the vacuum, and he will close the sales for us, he told us he is a very good salesmen, and he will close all of the sales, he just needs us to do a good job showing the customers the vacuum :)
Well I was in orientation Wednesday through Friday. (Not paid, and he told us we wouldn't be getting paid)  I was okay with that. I really wanted to learn how to make all this money, so I stuck with it.  
Saturday I got to take the vacuum home, and practice doing demonstrations at my families house, and friends house.  They all fell in love with the vacuum, so I got to sell a few,and got some cool bonuses :)  Like a free gift certificate, and cash!  Plus whatever I made on the 2 vacuums. lol.Then Monday came around, our first day of real work.
It was definitely different, it isnt your average job. Me the owner, and 3 other people all got into the van, and we drove 45 minutes to a small town, and the owner got us all into our own houses, on the spot.  When I got there, I was kind of nervous, but tried not to show it.  I cleaned the carpet for the old couple, and explained to them, the different tools, and showed them all the dirt.  I was trying to be friendly, and nice, then after  2 hours the owner came, and talked to the customers, and they bought it!  I sold my first vacuum, and I was so proud of myself, the negotiated the price a little bit, because they were seniors, but yeah!  I was very proud of myself.

This is how we got paid, if you sell 3 Kirby's a week, you get $300.00 guaranteed.  Plus you get money from each Kirby you sold! So if I only sold 2 Kirby's for $1,500.00 and the other for $1,115.00 then my paycheck would of been $300.00 :)  Because I got Half of over $1000.00 So anything over $1000.00 would be split in half with my boss.

Well, I kept working, and putting in a lot of hours, I was very dedicated, and made good money.  The only problem I had with the job was that I didnt have enough time to see my boyfriend, so I had to quit.  We were working sometimes until 10 o clock at night, and I had no social life. :(

If I was single, I would definitely still be there, because I made very easy money.  All I had to do was be nice to people, show them how good the vacuum worked, show them the dirt, and they wanted it!   I don't know why people on here are complaining.  I am sure there are a lot of businesses out there that are not running it the way they are supposed to, but that doesn't mean that EVERY Kirby business is bad.  It doesn't mean that every person that sells Kirby products is a bad person.

I don't have any criminal backround, but I do see a lot of people that have had simple misdemeanors that are hired, and there isnt anything wrong with that.Kirby has a law, where they CANNOT hire anyone that has a felony.  You can call them and ask.They will NOT hire a felon, they do backround checks.   Maybe in the past someone did hire  a felon, but now if they do that, they will get their business shut down. There was a point in time where I made over $1000.00 a week.
This isnt a regular job.  You have a chance to run your OWN company with this job, you have the opportunity to make A LOT of money.  It just depends how MOTIVATED you are, and how much TIME you have to invest in this.  If you sell a Kirby you WILL make profits of each one.  

Julia, I am so sorry you had a bad experience with us.  I work for them right now.  I am not a dealer but a telemarketer that sets the appointments the dealers go on.  Kirby or RTS for that matter is not a rip off.  Kirby has been around for many many many years the brand is known and has been established.  Kirby does not advertise on TVs or the internet but more word of mouth then anything else and I dont think it needs a bad wrap from you. 

You had a bad experience, yes I will not deny that, but I see the dealers everyday and they are happy.  They arent just young punks or kids that the company is taking advantage of.  I see them go on their demos everyday, I see they sell and make money.  The people I call that already have Kirbys thank us everyday for selling it to them.

As for the ride along you did, you can be trained in the classroom all day long, but there is nothing like real life experience.  So going along on the demos was suppose to teach you what you needed to do as an employee to make the person happy and you ultimately get a sale.  Yes some customers we go to get irritated but that comes with ANY door to door sales. (I know I am just a telemarketer but I have been on the other end too doing the door to door, so I am not just talking out my a*s.)

And as far as the not paying you, if you would have read the contract you signed you wouldve understood that it is not an hourly position.  The newspaper or ad most likely said, because I have read them myself, make up to 1600a month, or up to 400 a week or whatever.  those 2 little words, "UP TO" tell any person that it is a commission job, or at least anyone who is use to sales.  So I think this whole thing would have been avoided if you would have just read.

I am sorry if this seems harsh, but I work for this company and do not have one complaint!

To the rebuttal above....among the misguided perceptions you show include the screwed up description of the human anatomy. As to the Kirby Company see the following link.

(((REDACTED)))


CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

I recently became a dealer for the RTS Group here in Fredericksburg, VA. Since I am the proud owner of a Kirby Vacuum Cleaner I knew exactly what I was getting into when I decided to apply.

I bought my Kirby over 7 years ago. I knew about the effectiveness and durability of these machines from an ex-girl friend of many years ago that owned one. When I moved my family from New York City to Virginia it was because we wanted to own a home and have "land" for our two girls to grow up on. Since we all love pets, we have four rescue dogs and two cats, we decided to adopt some. Since I suffer from asthma, I knew we'd need a very good vacuum cleaner and of course Kirby came to mind. So we bought one from a salesperson that was showing them in our neighborhood one day, and that was over 7 years ago.

In that time, we had one tune up done to it, and the Kirby still has the suction power that it had when we first got it those many years ago. However, I did not set out to become a Kirby salesman or dealer. The way that happened, was we went to the RTS office to purchase bags for our Kirby. By the way, each Kirby bag holds 7 pounds of dirt so they each last about 8-9 months, but anyway when my wife and I got to the office, I asked them if they were in need of a salesman, they did and I filled out the application.

Everything was outlined in the application. However, I did not read anywhere that the references must or should be family members. In fact it was a regular employment application that one would fill out at any place of employment. It had the same routine questions, name, address, educations, a place to list all your prior employment, a question regarding any convictions, etc., and of course a place to list 3 references.

I was told to come back for an interviewed the following Monday since it was Friday. So I was interviewed on Monday, got a call on Tuesday and told to come in to begin my orientation on Wednesday.

Everything was above board. There were 5 of us at the orientation, 4 males and 1 female. The female did not complete the orientation but the rest of us did. We were told that we had to attend three days of "Voluntary Orientation" which included that day. Voluntary means that we would  not be paid for attending those three days. Everyone had the option of leaving right then, but no one did. During those three days we learned the history of the Kirby Company (it was invented in 1906 by James B. Kirby, an inventor that holds many patents) and that since then there have been 21 generations of the Kirby machine. The one I purchased was called the Ultimate G, and the current one is the 2009 Sentria.

Even though I own a Kirby, I learned that I was not using it to 10% of it's capacity. The Kirby is a Carpet Shampooer, an electric sweeper, a vacuum cleaner, a spray painter, a floor buffer, a mattress cleaner, a leaf blower, a drain unstopper and a ton of other things.

I am just completing my first week. I have gone out on three demonstrations on my own and sold 2.

Let me digress here for one moment. The day before I was to start my orientation, I did a search for Kirby in general and the RTS Group in particular. I came across this site and read the gripes made by the few. The fact of the matter is that sales, direct sales, is not for everyone. Most of the gripes come from people that just can not cut it as a sales person. Rather than admit their own faults, the average person points the finger outward. They do not notice that as they point their one finger, four are curled and are actually pointing right back at them.

Ok, back to the issue on hand. The next big complaint made is about some of the dealers. As I stated, direct slaes is a very hard hard job and is not meant for everyone. One gets paid strictly in commissions. Just like car salespeople do. What this means is that if you do not sell anything you do not get paid. Ok, so back to orientation. Mr. Albert Archie, the owner of this particular franchise (actually it's a distributorship) told everyone that to help new dealers get started he will pay them $400.00 per week if they do a minimum of 15 demos. Again, direct sales is not for everyone so many people that can not cut it never do the 15 demos hence do not get paid. That is where all the misunderstanding comes. Let me ask you, if you were a business owner would you pay me to do nothing, to produce nothing? Of course not. Anyone that is in business is so because they want to make money. So the exchange is $400.00 for 15 demos. One need not make any sales, one need only make 15 demos. The reason Mr. Archie has set the 15 as the minimum is because if one follows the lessons as taught, and does the demo as outlined, one will make sales. The average for new people is 1 sale for every five demos. So it stands to reason that if you make 15 demos you should sell at least three systems and depending on your commission you stand to make no less than $200.00 per sale. So if you were at the lowest level commission and you made 3 sales you would make more that the $400.00 offered as the incentive.

Ok, so lets talk about customer complaints. From what I read on this and other consumer sites, most of the complaints have to do with individual dealers. Again since this is a direct sales job, and people only get paid if they sell some dealers -- especially the novice or less experienced -- tend to be pushy and not want to accept no as an answer. This is what frustrates people and makes them think of this as a scam or something.

I have done three demos on my own, sold two. In each of those instances the customer already had a vacuum cleaner. However, in exchange for them listening to my demo I offer to shampoo free of charge two carpets for them. Most, not all, people think this is a fair exchange. Now if the demo is done right the sale is made. The Kirby sells itself. I have run demos against Dyson's, Rainbow's, Hoovers and in each instance I have proved that they are not cleaning the carpet. Additionally with my Kirby I extract pounds of dirt from areas that I have just vacuumed using the customers own machine. The thing that really makes the sale is when I extract pounds of dust mites and dead skin from their mattresses.

So, here is the gist of this rebuttal:

1) Direct Sales is not for everyone and just because you can't sell doesn't make it a scam. The Kirby company is celebrating its 9th decade of existence. If it were a scam could it have lasted well over 90 years?

2) Avon, Mary Kay, Tupperware, etc. are all direct sales companies. Does anyone think of them as scams or ripoff's? No, of course not. Because they are not scams or ripoff's, they are legitimate company's as is Kirby. It just so happens that Kirby sells a high end product - it cost much more.

3) Everyone hates car salesmen but yet people still buy cars. I'll venture to say that even those that gripe here about the Kirby, gripe about car salesmen to. Yet I go out on a limb and say that most of them also drive cars.

I understand disliking pushy, rude, obnoxious salespeople. But to denigrate an entire company based on the experience of one, two, 100 salespeople is not fair. Kirby dealers are fathers, wives, mothers, sisters, sons, daughters, husbands, etc. We are not thieves or ripoff artist. We are hardworking people. Everyone can not be doctors or lawyers, nor can everyone be a Kirby dealer. For everyone 100 disgruntled ex-employee there are thousands of happy, hardworking money earners.

Rather than gripe because you cant sell. go get a 9 to 5 job that you can do. You'll know exactly what you'll earn each payday and you'll still be griping when you don't get a raise or a COLA (cost of living allowance).

Those that can afford Corvette's drive them, those that can't drive Honda's or Toyotas. Those that like cleanliness and can afford it buy Kirby's, those that can't buy Dyson's.