Kirby Vacuum Presentation: A Very Poor Demonstration
Here in LA (that’s Lower Alabama) for all you folks out in TV Land, it is beginning to warm up. We still have a few cool days remaining but those will soon be a distant memory. As the weather warms my wife tends to dream of spring cleaning. At least she dreams of me cleaning in the spring and the summer and the fall and all winter. Well the dreams and the nagging (described to me as motivational speaking) started this past weekend, and ended with me dragging every area rug we have ever owned out onto the driveway at 8 am.
I was then forced to drive to the local hardware store (read that as Rug Doctor Pimp) and rent a squatty little machine and a happy smile that promises clean carpets, clean furniture and a great time doing it. Since we are unwitting home to every animal that needs a home people (5 rescued cats and 2 rescued dogs and two teenage girls that I need to be rescued from) this is a semi annual event at least. Upon my arrival home the Rug Doctor took control of my life and forced me to work. I tried to resist but the power of my wife’s look and the hypnotic effect of the Rug Doctor was just too much. The Best Car Vacuum On the Market of 2020 will provide a demonstration to the person for cleaning of the car. Along with the males, females should take care of the effects.
About 3:30 pm I was down to my last 6×12 area rug, 2 small rooms and a 5 foot hallway. The end was in sight when all of sudden a young man comes around the corner of my van and says “Whoa there, you should let me do that for you.” I handed him the brush, the hose and said the rug doctor was over there but he just laughed at me. He told me that someone would arrive at my door in about 15 minutes and they would finish the last two rooms and the hallway for free ( I figured he made this offer since I am such a handsome devil). At this point he did ask if I had heard about Kirby Vacuums and I said yes.
His next statement was that I shouldn’t worry about buying one of these machines since they are now almost $2500. But just to tell everyone I knew how well it did. They would be glad to do the rooms. I knew from the get go that I would not be buying one at this point even though I do believe it to be a very good product. About 20 minutes later a young man of about 25 shows up at the door with another young man who turned out to be 18 and both had two large armfuls of equipment. I invited them in to the living room and the older one introduced me to himself and the younger man.
Alex, the sales manager, took a cell call during the first five minutes of arriving and then said he would be back later to check on Jeff and make sure he was doing a good job. Jeff did a good job of demonstrating the various attachments and the strength of the Kirby vacuum. What he didn’t do was make the product sizzle for me. The little dirt pads that come out of his “dirt meter” are impressively dirty showing me how poor a job my current vacuum does. However, on the carpet I had just cleaned, it appears that the Rug Doctor did a good job. I was very relieved about that.
After about an hour Jeff finally started to vacuum and clean with a dry foam shampoo the area that had been promised. The hallway connects two teenage girls room to their bathroom. Not a pretty site. Make-up, pet stains, nasty tennis shoes are the mainstay of this hallway. Spilled drinks, snacks and too many people visiting make the carpets in their rooms a very tough job. It took about an hour and a half for Jeff to clean the carpet.
The carpet did not look new (as promised). I didn’t think it would. It did however look just as good as if I had done it with my rusty, trusty Rug Doc. By allowing him to do the work I was able to relax for almost three hours. Yes, I had to watch as he pulled out all the stops to demonstrate his machine. But that was just good TV.
After he was finished he asked if he could clean up the machine. I let him use the bathtub and provided some paper towels. He did not make a mess and was very polite. He called his manager who took about 30 minutes to arrive so we sat on the sofa and watched 3rd Rock from the Sun on TV together.
Once Alex, the manager, arrived he asked me how Jeff had done and rated him very well. He asked me if I knew how much the machine costs and replied about $2250 my wife yelled in from the kitchen $1800. I thought we were on the Price is Right. Started looking for Drew Cary. He handed me a price list with a cash price and two financed prices that were at full price. He then took another a phone call.
After hanging up the phone he asked Jeff how fast he could pack up the machine. If he could accomplish the task fast enough he could put him into another home right away. I thought this was kind of rude. He then took out a sales pad and said “Listen, I need to move this unit. Here is my manager’s discount. $20 down no payments for 60 days and you can take $600 off the price if you trade in your old vacuum.” I said no. He said, “What if I make it $10 and half price.” I said no again and he got up and left and young Jeff left right behind him with the machine.
While the machine did a good job of cleaning the salesmen did very little to build a need or desire in me to want the machine. I could have afforded the small down and the payments but at this time the need was not defined enough for me and my family to go down that path. If you need a good machine to do a thorough cleaning job this Kirby will do the job, but know what you want and what you are looking for before inviting them in to your home.
