Door to door sales. Sleazy?

[rcrvrp]

I hope I'm not stepping on toes with this question, I'm not trying to paint all sales people with a broad brush.
I have not seen a dtd vacuum sales guy for a long time, don't know if its even done anymore.
But my mother, now departed, was a widow for a long time with a big home 2 stories with long shag carpet from the 70s.
She had a central vac system she didn't like so she bought an Electrolux, went to town and got it. After a few years a Kirby salesman stops by and convinces her to spend a few thousand on a Kirby. This is in the early 90s.
He had her convinced it was so much better than the Electrolux. She was in her 70s at the time and although not senile she was a very gullible old lady.
I was not happy but it was her money and she could afford it.
About 5 years later an Electrolux guy comes by and $2600 later she has a new vacuum. This time I saw it the next day and took it back for a refund.
A few years later its another one. I didn't find out about that one for a month, too late to return. Every time it was a "free" carpet shampoo or some other gimmick to get in the door and then high pressure from there on.
When I have more time I'll tell you about interviewing for a sales job in college and it was a commission job selling Rainbows. No, I didn't start selling them.
So my question is were these high pressure vac sales techniques taught by the manufacturer to their distributers? Or for some reason did the vac business just devolve into questionable ethics?

 

[centralsweeper63]

I have heard bad story's about door to door salesmen.... but this is something different. Thousands and thousands of dollars were, in my opinion SWINDLED out of her. Just horrible, how do these people sleep at night. The good door to door salesmen are wonderful, like the one's on here. But the bad ones are something else entirely.

 

[rcrvrp]

I have heard bad story's about door to door salesmen.... but this is something different. Thousands and thousands of dollars were, in my opinion SWINDLED out of her. Just horrible, how do these people sleep at night. The good door to door salesmen are wonderful, like the one's on here. But the bad ones are something else entirely.

When I cleaned out her house the Kirby was still there and I didn't want it. [Big heavy hunk of metal, what elderly lady would be able to take that up a stairway?] So I put it on Marketplace for $100 including even a shampoo attachment. Friendly guy came and asked about it, I told him didnt know much except by the looks of it it wasn't used much and she paid over $2000 for it and I thought she got screwed because she was old and vulnerable.
He looked at it closely and mentioned some technical detail about the model, something the average person wouldn't know about, I didn't.
I asked how he knew about that.
He said, "I used to sell these years ago, might have sold this one."
He offered $50, I held at $100, he took it.
What he didn't know is I would have taken $25 before he told me he used to sell them! I got a tiny bit of revenge for my mother.

 

[centralsweeper63]

HA, good one.

 

[vacerator]

I don't know if still today, but several years back I let a Rainbow salesman in and do a demo. He put the upholstery tool on and vacuumed my carpet and the water was a bit grey. He gifted me the carving knife set even though I declined a purchase. Those things had tangs that were wider than the wood and very uncomfortable to use at all.