 Welcome to vacuum, etc. How-to series. This week we're going to be covering how to use the Kirby carpet shampoo system. You'll turn the machine on, put it in dry, and begin shampooing. I see what you're doing. You can stop there. No, that just means that they're starting to get disturbed by it. Keep going, okay? Because it's going to really bother them. You need them to understand this is a problem. And then I take one over to the customer, okay? And I'm just like, hey Nick, I'm really concerned about this because do you notice how much carpet fiber we're picking up there? They usually it's thick because you're on thick carpet and blah, blah, blah. So what I'm concerned about, go ahead and hold on to that for me. See how he does it? He just grabs the corner of it. There's a difference between seeing the dirt on the floor and the dirt in your hand, doesn't it? Big time. Big time. Make sure mom and dad are both holding a pad. Breathe in. So here we go. Do you want to eat that piece? I'll eat this here. Oh, nice. So now they're pretty interested in what you're doing right or wrong. They're just like, wow, look at all this going on. And remember at this point you've got almost 30 pads like across that floor now. Okay, so do not let these people in your home. I'm not paying $1,000 for a vacuum, bro. Straight up. I'm not paying $1,000 for a vacuum. So he tells me what I've seen. If you give me your vacuum that you have right down your shampoo right now, I can give you some credit. And he said I can get your payments as low as $2,000 a month for 24 months. Yeah, $1,200. Bro, that's $200 more than what I just told you I'm paying. This someone is talking about Kirby vacuums and working for them and how it's not a good idea. The first thing is they're going to promise you base pay. And if you don't make the quota for the product demonstration, you will not get that base pay. And if you don't sell anything, you will not make any money at all. They'll promise you everything under the moon from trips to Vegas and Hawaii and all this other type stuff. You won't get that. And basically anytime a job is trying to sell itself to you to get you hyped up to work there, don't believe the hype. It's a pyramid scheme. It's all a lie. It's a lie to you up front. First and foremost, let's just let's nip it in the bud right there. Let's get the elephant out the room. $500 base pay is a lie. Not used to you being here. Hey, boss babes and boss bros, should that be my intro? Let me know in the comments below if you think that should be my YouTube intro. Today, I'm going to be talking about a story that's very close to my heart because it involves one of my subscribers, one of you guys. One of you shared this company with me and your experiences and it was such a moving story that I knew I had to do a video on this and look further into the company. So that's what I'm doing today. I also created a website for more stories like this. I have just been getting so many stories sent to me of scams and bad business practices that different people have experienced. And I thought there needs to be a good resource where people can go to see anonymous stories about different scams and business practices that have happened to different people. This story itself that this subscriber sent to me will be linked down below in a blog post anonymously if you'd like to read this story in full. And if you like these types of videos, videos on bad business practices, exposing together all of the scammy companies that are out there, then please subscribe below, give this video a thumbs up and well, let's get into the video today. I'll be talking about the company Kirby, a direct selling company that sells vacuums for literally thousands of dollars. Now my husband and I got a vacuum, I think on let go for like what 30 bucks and another vacuum we got by friends of ours who gave it to us for free. So to spend thousands of dollars on a vacuum seems a little bit overboard to me. I think most low tier vacuums are at least decently adequate unless you live in a place like the White House, but then, you know, you have your own cleaning crew anyways and don't need to spend money on a thousand dollar vacuum. So I'm kind of confused on the purpose of these Kirby vacuums in general. Though Kirby is not an MLM company, it's very reminiscent of an MLM company and a lot of the bad business practices of MLMs and scams out there. It's pretty much a very shady business and I'll explain why. In this video, I'll first talk about Kirby as a company and some of the shady stuff that they've done. And after kind of talking about some of the shady stuff that Kirby has done themselves, I'll then go into my subscribers story and share that with you guys today as well. Kirby was founded in the 1920s. So the company has been around for quite some time throughout all these years. Kirby has pretty much kept its original design and very similar materials. It has only improved the model slightly over time. What's really bizarre is how valuable this vacuum company has really become. Warren Buffett's company Berkshire Hathaway bought Scott Fetzer, the company that owns Kirby for $315 million. And Kirby was the main contributor to the Scott Fetzer value and wealth. Kirby is actually a very, very valuable company for just selling vacuums door to doors in really small communities. And that's really strange. Kirby has about 500,000 sales per year, which is quite a large amount of vacuum sales for such an overpriced vacuum. I mean, most of the vacuums are sold for $2,500. So you wonder how any salesperson can justify such an expensive vacuum and how they can sell it to people. I mean, it seems like an impossible sale to make. So how has Kirby become so successful at selling the Rolls Royce of vacuum cleaners? Just kidding. That's a ridiculous comparison considering it's vacuum cleaners. Like I don't think there needs to be an expensive overpriced version. Kirby has been called a textbook case of unconscionability. May have said that wrong, by the way. Grammar is not my forte. Fortitude. See, that's an example right there. But yeah, Kirby has been called a textbook case of unconscionability by many renowned legal professors. Their business practices are truly that immoral. Kirby has also been criticized by a number of consumer protection agencies. In 1999, over the course of just a few years, 15 of the total 22 state consumer protection agencies had received more than 600 complaints against Kirby. These are a lot of random numbers. But what does it really mean? Well, the number of complaints is right on par with pyramid schemes and other scam companies. And yet, Kirby's owned by Berkshire Hathaway and seen as a legitimate business. They're not seen as an MLM company because they just do door-to-door sales and don't try and get people under them, technically speaking. So they're seen as more legit than a multi-level marketing company, yet they have hundreds and hundreds and thousands of complaints against them for their bad business practices. Much of the complaints against Kirby involve extreme over-the-top sales pitches to an audience known for their susceptibility to scams. The Wall Street Journal noted a time when an elderly couple was unable to remove three Kirby salesmen from their home for over five hours. First off, why were there three salespeople for just one elderly couple? How many salespeople does it take to sell a vacuum? Apparently three. It reminds me of like when one cop pulls over one car for speeding, and then three other cops show up all of a sudden like no offense to cops. I respect what you do and all, but why is that ever necessary? That's something I've never understood. I mean, five hours is a ridiculous amount of time to talk about vacuums. I'd be surprised if I talked about vacuums for five hours in my entire lifespan. How it goes is pretty much my husband saying, we need a vacuum and me saying, yeah, we do. Which one should we get? That one. The end. No more vacuum discussions needed. Five hours to talk about a vacuum is just way too much for anyone, any human. No. Unless of course you work at a vacuum company, but you know, that's the exception. Worst of all was an example of a Kirby sales person who had sold a vacuum to a disabled woman. This disabled woman was living alone in a mobile home only on $1,000 a month in Social Security. This woman was also suffering from Alzheimer's disease, which causes memory loss. This woman was discovered to have owned two Kirby vacuum cleaners. The second one she had bought for $1,700. It's basically insinuated that a sales person had sold this vacuum to her twice, and she had bought this extremely expensive vacuum twice unknowingly because of her condition. I mean, that's awful. What type of low level human do you have to be to take advantage of someone who's obviously poor, disabled, living off of Social Security and has a condition in which they're easily taken advantage of? And every time I hear a story like this, it just blows my mind that there's people out there in this world that are like that, that exist among us. Kirby talks about themselves as if there's a Porsche of vacuum cleaners. But last time I checked, Porsche doesn't go door to door selling their car, targeting senior citizens who cannot afford them. So try again. Since Kirby operates only as a direct selling door to door company with its independent sellers, Kirby asserts that it is not liable for the actions of its sales force, that their independent contractors therefore separate in a certain sense from the business Kirby itself. I honestly absolutely despise that law just because I feel like it allows companies like Kirby to teach their independent sellers immoral selling practices and yet claim no responsibility when those sellers go out and use those immoral selling practices. Though Kirby says it's not liable for the action of its sales force, the law has dictated otherwise in a few very extreme cases. The Supreme Courts of both Texas and North Dakota have held Kirby liable for charges committed by door to door salesmen that they've hired. And yes, that awkward moment when you try and make sure that the video doesn't get demonetized, even though you're not even monetized by YouTube. Thank you, YouTube. But yes, Kirby hired salespeople who went out and did that instead of making a sale. That's serious and so scary. The company is known for hiring people with not the greatest background. I'm all for giving people a second chance, but when your company is doing door to door sales, you'd think that safety would be the number one priority. So those were all the major issues and accusations against Kirby as a company. Most of the problems with Kirby don't even have to do with the quality of the vacuum itself or even the price tag, even though the price tag is ridiculous. Most of the issues with Kirby have to do with the sales tactics employed by the business. It seems like the overall theme of Kirby salespeople is to target those in poorer communities who are maybe older or dealing with a condition that makes them more susceptible to scams and then exploit that by giving them an overly aggressive sales pitch in which it's extremely hard to say no to them. Kirby salespeople ask to go into a house to give you an in-person demonstration of their vacuum and cleaning capabilities. And then once you say yes, they will stay in your house for five hours until they get the sale and they will not take no for an answer. Most nice people who are kind and trusting enough to let a random person into their house probably have a hard time saying no. I know I do sometimes. They may feel uncomfortable being that assertive and end up succumbing to the sales pitch just to get the person out of their house. And because of this, I can confidently say that I believe Kirby to be an unethical company. But here's where things will get even more interesting. I'm going to tell you a story that one of my subscribers sent to me about their experiences with Kirby the company. Before I tell you the story, I really want to reiterate two main things. The first thing is their full story word for word just as they wrote it will be linked down below through my website so you can click on it and read the story in full if you'd like. The second thing is you are fully welcome to criticize me and my videos. But that's because I'm choosing to put myself out there to make these videos to edit them. I'm choosing to put myself on this platform. My subscriber is not. My subscriber wrote this detailed story so that they can share their experiences and warn others of Kirby as a company. Please do not criticize this subscriber who deserves nothing but love and support for their bravery and coming forward and sharing their story. So let's get into the subscriber's story of their experience with Kirby. I'll be reading the story from my computer right here so if I'm looking down a little bit that's why. So my subscriber shared with me the actual posts that she saw of the job posting for the Kirby vacuum salesperson and it reads like this. The role that they're advertising is sales representative and the company is called Attitude Succeeds LLC. Now that is so shady to literally have a different company name in your job posting ad. You know that your company is shady when you have to completely use a different name in a job posting so that you can get actual people to apply for the job and the job posting says do you like one on one customer service then you'd be a great addition to our team. We are looking for hardworking individuals to help our 103 year old company. You will work closely with our customers to find out what they want create solutions and ensure a smooth sales process. Our sales representatives will work to find new sales leads through client referrals business directories etc. There is no experience required. We do all hands-on training not once in this job posting ad does it say that you're selling vacuum cleaners and that you're going door to door to sell them then she continues and says as you can see there was never any mention of cleaning vacuums or anything in their posting so it appeared to be a normal job so I applied. I got a call later and was asked to come in for an interview so I went through the first interview the woman I spoke with never mentioned that they sold Kirby's that's very reminiscent of Amway and other MLMs that don't tell you they're an MLM company they just pitch this idea of being an awesome business opportunity a group of about 20 people including myself were led to a basement room below the office now that's a little sketchy she had us all sit down and introduce ourselves and then she proceeded to give a powerpoint presentation about the company and the job that was being offered that's when she told us that the job was actually for Kirby but she stated that there were opportunities to work in the office and that not everyone would be going to sell at the end of her presentation she admitted that everyone starts out selling but she repeated multiple times that it's not door to door sales and that those who work in the office set up the appointments for those who work in the field they're trying to string people along as far as possible to get them to a point where once they actually reveal what they have to do go door to door to sell vacuums they're already so far into the company that it's hard for them to turn back or walk away I feel like that's what a lot of scammy companies do they just try and keep you strung along as long as possible so that when you actually find out what the company is really about or really doing it's too late and you're already so wrapped into it that you feel like you can't leave that you're in too deep already I was still not fully comfortable with this so I asked her two questions the first one was how do they vet the people who the sellers are meeting to make sure that the people are safe and two at any point are people required to go door to door to random houses or anything even similar in that nature she said that they make sure to run background checks and all potential customers and that they know where their sellers are at all times to ensure safety and she promised that at no point are we ever going door to door literally Kirby is solely a door to door selling company so that's extremely infuriating that they're misleading potential representatives she said that things have changed in the past few years and that they no longer follow that practice I said okay and she continued answering other people's questions which were mainly about pay training and work hours she said that training was paid and you'd receive your check the following week if you completed training she also said that you were paid every two weeks regardless if you made a sale or not and that all you had to do was go to a minimum of 10 if I remember correctly sales a week which she said would be easy since again they find the customers and set up your appointments in the office there was also mention of a $500 bonus if you get any friends or family to work with the company as well hmm sounds sketchy then she dismissed us and said that if we were interested in moving forward then we could come back to training next day sorry guys by the way if you can hear the dog next door we just had a new next-door neighbor move in and whenever the owners aren't home the dog barks like crazy and I don't know what to do let me know what I should do in the comments below I'm thinking of asking the neighbors if when they're gone it's okay to bring the dog over here and give them some love and attention so yeah anyways I finished the training and then they had a weekend where you have to practice pitching to your friends and family and if you made a sale in that practice time then you got the commission from it basically you're just going to the homes of your friends and family and cleaning their carpets and pretending to sell to them any sort of company that tries to get you to sell to friends or family is just probably not a good one that has your best interest in mind you know it's probably not a legit one with a legit marketing plan and a legit resource of developing customer leads if you're expected to go to your friends and family to make a sale whether they're an MLM or not because technically Kirby's not an MLM but it's very similar my mom being like any loving mom wanted to support me so she bought a Kirby from me you have to write down the names and phone numbers of the people you practiced on because they said they would be calling the people to verify that you did complete the practice pitch then came the first day of the actual job I showed up and that's when I found out that every morning all of the employees meet in the basement room and they sing songs about Kirby I'm not joking yeah that's a little bit creepy and cultish especially when you're going down into a basement with a bunch of random strangers and singing songs about a company like I immediately thought of cults and was really unsettled by this then after that they announced that certain people had meetings with clients for the day and that the information would be passed out and everyone else would be going out into the field to talk and survey people this set up red flags because this survey thing was never mentioned in the interviews or the training or anything they said that for these surveys you're supposed to scout new neighborhoods and homes and go knock on doors and ask the people a couple questions and tell them you're entering them in a drawing to win a free carpet cleaning for one room or a free gas card such a scam oh my gosh and I'm just upset for the person who's telling this story who has been led to believe that this is a legitimate opportunity who spent so much of their time that they could have been spending on looking for a legitimate job into this scam company because they were truly led to believe that it was legitimate and they really needed a legitimate opportunity now they're getting hit slapped in the face with reality that this is really not what it seems to be so not only are they scamming the customers but they're scamming their own employees too I asked about the safety of this practice going door to door with the surveys and they said that we were more than welcome to partner up but that if we made a sale then we had to split the commission at this point I really didn't care about earning a commission or making a sale I was furious because I was assured numerous times that this was not part of the job and that it was completely safe I kept my calm until they dismissed everyone and then I went upstairs and found the woman who did my interview and training and I lost it good for her the wife of the owner of the company overheard me and she came in and took me into her office and asked me to calm down and to explain why I was so upset so I did she apologized that it was not fully explained to me and said that it was wrong I asked her if I could get the money that they owed me and then she said that I would only receive the money if I stayed for the first week and that if I left early then the funds would be forfeited oh my gosh it's not right to put that much time in work and to not be able to receive it that it's forfeited if you don't put a week into the company I'm like I'm infuriated so because of this she decided she needed to stay because like I said she really needed the money and she needed a legitimate opportunity so instead of going out into the field by herself she ended up partnering with another girl this is what she had to say about her she was 18 but she also taught me a few things and she had been there for about a month she told me how the interview and everything was set up like it was to scam people into joying and that all the friends and family that you did your practice pitches with they keep their information and actually call them later to try and tell them they want a free carpet cleaning for one room so they could send another seller to their house and try and get in and pitch them to try and make a sale so they use your friends and families that you practiced on to try and sell again and again she told me that the survey is also a blatant scam and no one is ever entered into a drawing they call every single person whose name and number you collect from the survey and tell them they all won a free house carpet cleaning of one room because they're making a list of people to whom they can send their sellers it's like when websites have that pop up that's like enter into this free drawing enter your email here and it's really just to put you on their email list so they can end up sending promotional email marketing materials except for it's the in-person version of that which ends up with an aggressive sales person who's face to face with you that's trying to sell you a thousand dollar vacuum who they also do absolutely no vetting of any potential customers this girl and I were sent to one trailer way out in the woods that didn't even have a driveway or road leading to it not even a dirt or gravel path it was obvious that whoever lived in this house did not have the funds to buy a thousand plus dollar vacuum and I would never even consider trying to shill anything so expensive to someone in such conditions it's beyond reprehensible that they would try to con people living in poverty into buying an overpriced vacuum on top of everything else the girl I was partner with admitted to me that they had never even paid her not even for completing her training not for going on her minimum required appointments with customers she was convinced that this job would pay her the money she needed to buy her own car I kept trying to talk her out of it because I told her that I wouldn't be sticking around and something bad could happen to her because they don't care about the safety of their employees but she stuck with saying that she would stay if they finally paid her my last day I went in and I got my paycheck and I told them I was done and that they were wrong for how they scammed me and everyone else and that they are putting people in harm's way and then I left I honestly hate that company now me too me too I hate this company now too I just wanted a job that paid me enough that I could afford to keep my small apartment in my car in the end that money was not enough to save my apartment in my car I kept looking for other jobs but it was so difficult to find anything there were a few months where I couldn't even afford to buy food other than ramen noodles and even that was cutting into my bill money I always bought my dog and cat their food though I'll go without food before they will this is I ended up losing my apartment in my car and I moved back in with my mom and my mental health also took a nose dive I would get ever even going into the interview and the training and I still feel bad that my mom bought a Kirby from me to end things on a happier note I now have a job working from home writing for therapists and I'm looking more into freelance copy editing and proof reading and possibly freelance writing my dream is to become a published author but for now I have a stable job that allows me to play a role in helping people and I'm able to pay all my bills and feed myself my dog and my two cats I mean that's awesome that she ended up finding a great job and that she made it out of that experience I'm just so sorry that you know this person had to experience that and that her safety was in such danger that's the scariest part of all of this and why I think Kirby needs at least to be regulated by an agency like the FTC for a lot of their you know false advertising of their job opportunities false advertising to customers while they may not be an MLM where you have to get distributors under you you're still selling through scamming people and giving them a false opportunity that really isn't there whether it's the employees that you're trying to get into you know your business or the people that you're trying to sell this thousand dollar vacuum to this is why I see my channel personally as one that just covers unethical business practices in general Kirby isn't labeled a multi-level marketing company instead it's called a direct selling company but it's still a wrong company that's scamming people and doing very immoral unethical things I feel like its business practices are even worse than some MLM companies because it's putting people in danger and scamming vulnerable people that the company targets they use very shady tactics and extremely aggressive pitches and in a way these Kirby sales tactics make MLM distributors look mild in comparison because at least MLM distributors only message you through Facebook not show up at your doorstep and come in for a five hour pitch that they're trying to sell you in your own home well that's all I have to say today guys thank you so much if you've watched all the way to the end of this video for supporting me and for helping me stand up against these unethical business practices if you enjoyed this video please subscribe and give this video a thumbs up it really means a lot to me to see all of your support and if you have any ideas for videos I should do next leave them in the comments down below and well until next time have a good one