As many of you know, I've loved Kirby vacuums since I was a kid. I've owned many over the years and have a few to this day.
Let me tell you a little about my family history. When I was growing up, we never lived in a house that we were buying. We rented all my life. We also never had anything new. All our furniture and appliances were bought used. Fast forward to the present, nothing much had changed even though I have a good job I've been working at for over 20 years. One day a couple of years ago, I decided I was going to work on buying my first home. I spent a couple of years building my credit rating, and this past January, it all paid off. I bought a 2 bedroom, two bath in park mobile home. It has beautiful hard wood floors in the living/dining room areas and tile in the kitchen/bathrooms. I also bought all new living room furniture. Needless to say, I love it and now look forward to visitors.
When I was younger, one of my first jobs was selling Kirby. I did that for a few years until the bottom fell out of the steel industry and people had the choice of paying their mortgage and putting food on the table, or buying a very expensive vacuum cleaner.
By now, you are probably wondering what this has to do with buying a new vacuum. Well, when I sold Kirby, when we didn't have an appointment, we used to do a lot of canvassing. One of our favorite places to door knock was mobile home parks. You were almost always guaranteed to get into at least one door, and if you were lucky at least one sale. I've been here for 4 months now and was thinking about this on Friday when there was a knock at the door, and low and behold there he was. He introduced himself and identified himself as a representative of a local house cleaning company and offered me a free room of my choice of floor cleaning, and he showed me a flyer with the picture of the machine he was going to use and it was a Kirby with all the labels and logos covered up. I mentioned the fact that they used Kirby. He was shocked that I knew it was a Kirby and said they did because Kirby was the best. I told him that I used to sell Kirby and that I have owned several in my life and he was impressed. I invited him in and we talked Kirby for a while and then got down to business. He showed me a price for the Avalir Platinum plus canister attachments and the floor care kit of $3999+tax, and I about fell out of my chair. I told him there was no way in hell I was going to pay $4000 for a new Kirby, no matter how good they are, and he tried to justify the price. I again told him no, and proceeded to bring up the Kirby website and went to the Buy It Now page and showed him he was trying to sell me a middle of the road package for $3000 that I could buy online for $2500. The basic package, which was just the upright and canister attachments was $1,999, which is all I wanted, since I have a floor kit and zip brush for my Avalir II. He said he would have to "call his boss" to get permission. He proceeded to do so and came back and said his boss approved it, and asked me how I wanted to pay for it, cash or financing and I told him credit card. He looked at me and told me that they did not accept credit cards because the CC companies charge a percentage of the sale in fees to the merchant. He asked me if I could pay cash instead, and I said no because I don't keep that kind of cash laying around the house. I said if they don't take credit cards, then I couldn't buy it. He called his boss again, and suddenly they accepted Master Card or Visa. I gave him my card, and he ran the numbers and of course, it was approved so the salesman proceeded to assemble my new Kirby. I was really happy because the machine I got is brand new and has never been out of the box before I bought it. I justified buying it since everything else in the house is new, a nice new Kirby would be the cherry on top. With everything being done, the salesman packed up his stuff, thanked me, and then was out the door and gone. As part of the deal, he threw in the floor kit and a zip brush, even though I didn't need them, but at least I have a matching set.
Sorry for getting so wordy but this was my first dealing with a door to door Kirby salesman, and I was excited about my new machine. If any one else has any stories to tell about their dealings with Kirby, I'd love to hear about them.
Thanks, and have a great day. [this post was last edited: 4/20/2025-16:17]
Let me tell you a little about my family history. When I was growing up, we never lived in a house that we were buying. We rented all my life. We also never had anything new. All our furniture and appliances were bought used. Fast forward to the present, nothing much had changed even though I have a good job I've been working at for over 20 years. One day a couple of years ago, I decided I was going to work on buying my first home. I spent a couple of years building my credit rating, and this past January, it all paid off. I bought a 2 bedroom, two bath in park mobile home. It has beautiful hard wood floors in the living/dining room areas and tile in the kitchen/bathrooms. I also bought all new living room furniture. Needless to say, I love it and now look forward to visitors.
When I was younger, one of my first jobs was selling Kirby. I did that for a few years until the bottom fell out of the steel industry and people had the choice of paying their mortgage and putting food on the table, or buying a very expensive vacuum cleaner.
By now, you are probably wondering what this has to do with buying a new vacuum. Well, when I sold Kirby, when we didn't have an appointment, we used to do a lot of canvassing. One of our favorite places to door knock was mobile home parks. You were almost always guaranteed to get into at least one door, and if you were lucky at least one sale. I've been here for 4 months now and was thinking about this on Friday when there was a knock at the door, and low and behold there he was. He introduced himself and identified himself as a representative of a local house cleaning company and offered me a free room of my choice of floor cleaning, and he showed me a flyer with the picture of the machine he was going to use and it was a Kirby with all the labels and logos covered up. I mentioned the fact that they used Kirby. He was shocked that I knew it was a Kirby and said they did because Kirby was the best. I told him that I used to sell Kirby and that I have owned several in my life and he was impressed. I invited him in and we talked Kirby for a while and then got down to business. He showed me a price for the Avalir Platinum plus canister attachments and the floor care kit of $3999+tax, and I about fell out of my chair. I told him there was no way in hell I was going to pay $4000 for a new Kirby, no matter how good they are, and he tried to justify the price. I again told him no, and proceeded to bring up the Kirby website and went to the Buy It Now page and showed him he was trying to sell me a middle of the road package for $3000 that I could buy online for $2500. The basic package, which was just the upright and canister attachments was $1,999, which is all I wanted, since I have a floor kit and zip brush for my Avalir II. He said he would have to "call his boss" to get permission. He proceeded to do so and came back and said his boss approved it, and asked me how I wanted to pay for it, cash or financing and I told him credit card. He looked at me and told me that they did not accept credit cards because the CC companies charge a percentage of the sale in fees to the merchant. He asked me if I could pay cash instead, and I said no because I don't keep that kind of cash laying around the house. I said if they don't take credit cards, then I couldn't buy it. He called his boss again, and suddenly they accepted Master Card or Visa. I gave him my card, and he ran the numbers and of course, it was approved so the salesman proceeded to assemble my new Kirby. I was really happy because the machine I got is brand new and has never been out of the box before I bought it. I justified buying it since everything else in the house is new, a nice new Kirby would be the cherry on top. With everything being done, the salesman packed up his stuff, thanked me, and then was out the door and gone. As part of the deal, he threw in the floor kit and a zip brush, even though I didn't need them, but at least I have a matching set.
Sorry for getting so wordy but this was my first dealing with a door to door Kirby salesman, and I was excited about my new machine. If any one else has any stories to tell about their dealings with Kirby, I'd love to hear about them.
Thanks, and have a great day. [this post was last edited: 4/20/2025-16:17]
