Kirbys have been and will always be a great carpet cleaner...
The problem with kirby is the people that don't like to wash their upholstery, or take their drapes down and launder them... The people that tend to be more "Grab it outta the closet quick cause we've gotta 'flight of the bumble bee' clean this place before company gets here" kind of people want on-board tools and they need the static lift from a clean air motor.
Now, like I said, I will sell what ever vacuum fits the person, not something to just sell and move it.
I had a lady come in with four dysons. One was an Airmuscle 28, one was my favorite, a 17, one a 14 and the last a 7... I'd say she had a bit of a collection..
Anyways, she just had new carpet put in and none of the dysons would clean it, they kept getting tangled up in it.. It was a silk-strand that reminded me of 60's shag.. It was so soft and luxurious.. I could have slept on that carpet had she not smoked in the house.. But For that floor, I sold her a Sentria II and traded her out of her DC 28. She loved how the Kirby pushed on that carpet and how it cleaned it. She said it was ironic that she threw her old kirby out to go to the Dysons and now she was getting rid of a Dyson for a Kirby. I said You'll really know why you need a kriby when you change the first bag...
On the main floor, I sold her a R30D Brilliance, because she had more bare floors than carpet, but had venetian blinds she needed to clean and tall walls that she wanted to vacuum the corners out of. She hated the way the hoses worked on the Dysons. We package the Riccar Soft-Sweep with the R30's so she could do her bare floors (yes the brush shuts off and you can adjust the head, but the soft sweep gets under cabinets).
In the Basement, I repaired her DC17 by replacing the canister with the modified version that doesn't leak the dust, replaced her filters and her brush-roll. I charged her for the brush roll and included the rest as a 'trade' for buying the Riccar.
The 7 she wanted to get rid of, because it was getting old and wearing out, so I traded it on a rebuilt Oreck Magnesium for her carpeted/epoxy floored garage.. The 14 was serviced about a year and a half ago, the brush was fine so I cleaned it out and replaced the filters all for buying the Kirby. She took the 14 to her lake house and threw away the $59.95 Walmart Special she was using there.
A few months after getting used to the vacuums she came back in and bought a DC65 and had me ship it to her daughter in law, bought another R30D for her Son that lived an hour away and bought a DC59 to run around the house when she's not feeling like getting a vacuum out.
She said she was just so thankful I was willing to sell her a Kirby because it was just what she needed for that carpet. She was afraid to call the Kirby guys because of all the new people we've had in town. She did say she loved how the Brilliance cleaned on the bare floors and the carpet on the main level, said it was like cleaning with the Kirby but the Kirby just pushed so much easier on that long carpet. She told me that I wasn't kidding when I told her what she'd find in that first bag on the Kirby.. Also said it was amazing what she found in the Brilliance after using her dysons... She said she's thinking about getting rid of the basement 17 and getting another Brilliance for that floor after she is done buying Christmas gifts this year.
I know this lady is an extreme case, but I guess I'm trying to say, even though I sell Tandem's I'm not afraid to sell a Kirby. There will always be room in someone's house for a Kirby. I've got a Diamond G and a Maytag M1200! Oh, theres a Synergy G9 Premium there too (thats just for show though)! ;-)
