I was a Kirby Salesman...

by Joshua Tipton
(Knoxville, TN.)

We are sold a dream.... I was young, dumb and believed them. I even made a sale. After the sale I was told I earned 5 dollars. We are told we will make 1500 a week and any expenses would be covered. I worked for them for 2 weeks and because of the lack of pay (was working paycheck to paycheck at the time) and went homeless because of this group.

Anyways we are told "If they don't want to buy after the demo leave the pads on the floor. Only clean up if you make the sale." They also use the training motto... "They don't like our product because they don't know any better." They would then start the brainwashing all MLM (Multi Level Marketing) companies do. After 2 days of training (brainwashing and 20 minutes to learn how to set up the different attachments) they throw about 4 to 6 of us in a van with about 8 or 9 Kerbys in the back and drive around to bother people.

At my time period I went to about 6 or 7 different houses. I guess I look more trust worthy then other salesmen... (I work armed security now so if that means anything) and the first sale had a man I was talking to had already owned an older model and gave it to his mom so he was already looking for a new one. I did my demo and got done in 15 minutes. The man was extremely nice and let me wait for 40 minutes till the van came back to pick me up. I wish he never bought it from me. The sell was set up for 3090.00 under finance. These Vacuums are priced at 1600.00. So if I could ever meet you again sir I am so sorry.

We did training on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We started sales on that Saturday. I made my first sale on that Saturday. And sold another on Thursday of the following week. When it came time for payday I was told I would be payed 5 bucks because all my sales was through Finance... I abruptly told him to get lost and that I was reporting him to the BBB. He followed me belittling me and when I told them they are going to cause me to go homeless he said "YOU DESERVE IT" He was trying to get me to hit him trying to bump his chest with me. (Looking for a lawsuit too.)

We use to have 2 Kerby offices in Knoxville. After my visit to the BBB one is now gone.
Still went homeless and lived in my car for 6 months and hotels for another 6 months till I could get help from family but finally got my life back on track. For all the complaints about salesmen on here, here is a view from the other side.