One Business no Aspie should Work for.

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Recently I got a job working for a vacuum company. It was a distributing office in my town that sells Kirby Vacuums. All the ad in the paper said was customer service. I walk in and all he told me was that I would mostly be helping people with the product on the phone and some face to face interactions. I took the job, anyway I go to orientation and find out we are selling the vacuums, not being customer service, and we have to go into random strangers houses and show them the product and then try to sell it to them. Now at first it was okay in the fact that it was good pay and we could even win a trip to the bahamas. I only stayed 1 week and 2 days I even worked on a Saturday. However it wasn't till my last day I realized how stupid the employment was there. Anyone working for Kirby now I recommend getting out, I am not disgruntled at the company I have no hard feelings or anything it is just a bad company plain and simple. The reason I say this is because they basically want you to give up your live to work there. My first experience where I was acctually going in the field was not horrible but extremly uncomfortable I was trying to set up appointments for the vacuum salesmen. They were going to have me knocking on random peoples doors from about 11:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night and we didn't get back to the office till 11:00 at night. During the training they have you practice with family and friends, however they acctually do try to get u to sell the vacuum to them. The price of the Vacuum varies depending on what country you are in and possibly what state. If you have your own car it is better because you can have appointments already set up however if you don't use your car you have to use the company van and it goes out early and comes back late at night. I couldn't do the hours they wanted me to, I didn't even know what I was getting into at the time because they tell you absolutely nothing about the job untill you are all done training. They say that all they want you to do is make a friend, well they want you to friend the customer so you can sell the vacuum. Now here is where the **** hits the fan. I worked there for 1 week and 2 days and they didn't pay me a dime for working there. Thats right when I quit because I couldn't work the hours the whole week I worked there I didn't get paid. Because in order to get paid there you need to do 15 appointments a week. Also apparently the whole "Training" thing is free meaning you don't get paid and you don't pay them. When my mother heard about it she wanted to call my boss I let her. Still nothing happened they told her what they told me after my last day. They say they are not a cult even though they sing Kirby songs and say they are not in the kirby selling business they are in the making friends business to me it is still a company that is not right for people who do work well in social environments. I don't know about everyone here but I sure as hell don't feel like knocking on random peoples houses to get paid. As far as the product goes it is fine it works great however the price is extremely high. Anyway if you ever see Kirby hiring and think maybe its not so bad, just remember what I have said. Granted not everyone here would feel the same way I did working there, just make sure you are prepared to knock on doors and be in strangers houses in strange places you have never been to before applying. As my parents have always said and my new motto If it seems to go to be true it probably is.

sounds like they are extremely dishonest - "the making friends business". i could never do any kind of sales. and working long hours interacting with people would be a recipe for debilitating fatigue for me. i like people. i just have to take them in small doses.

Oh geez, I agree, anyone reading this needs to avoid Kirby like the plague!! ! I worked in one of their outfits back in 1996 right after I finished university, and I worked with a really slick and slimy sales manager who physically bullied and threatened me if I didn't make a sale. There were no witnesses, it was just me and him in the van and I never reported it to police b/c it would have been his word against mine (and he's a damn good liar ) I left about 2 weeks after I'd started there.

It sounds like a nightmare. I have heard and read terrible things about working for those people. It sounds like a big con.

It basically is one big con they trick you into employment then suck the life right out of you.

I started this job after graduating from college the first time. I gave up on my second day. (we were still training)..I knew I couldn't just go up to random people's houses and try to sell them stuff . In my search for employment, I've been sucked in by these scams a couple other times. They tell you it's customer service or marketing or something else, but it's sales. In your interview, they say they're only selecting a few applicants, but they end up hiring everyone they interview. It costs them nothing to try you out, even if you're a high school dropout with no work experience who showed up to the interview in shredded jeans and a t-shirt.

I had a similar experience to the original poster.

I interviewed and got a job with Vector Marketing (they sell Cutco knives).

After the job interview, I looked up the company on the internet and learned more about it. The reviews I saw were mostly negative.

It seemed shady, so I decided not to pursue any training.

Vector marketing for me too.

Were you fired for not using paragraphs?

IMHO they should still have paid you for the week, even if it was at a special training wage of some kind.

Kirby is an evil company. yes, to work for but also to let in your home.
My parents who were 80 years old let one of these two guys in their home and he talked them into buying a Kirby, all the stuff it could do et el. My parents were in early stages of dementia and agreed to buy the vacuum for like $3000. When my brother and I found out we called them two days later to come and get the thing. They came back and I was there. They kept pushing them to keep it and all it's wonderful attachments. I even asked them if it could catch birds. One guy paused, then said, 'yes it could, with such and such attachment.' By the time I told them no for the fifth time I was ready to call the police to get them out of the house. It must have shown on my face because they suddenly packed up and left.

Cons, cult , Do Not Let them in your house.

The only time you should let a kirby person into your house is if you have ALREADY decided you want one of there $3000 mattress cleaning uber-vacs.

I think I had found this job opportunity in my area. With consulation with my parents, however, I decided against it.

I would however like to disagree with the Vector marketing thing. IMO the part people find negative about the company is how they try to target-hire high school and college students, sometimes with temporary offices.

Vector differs from other companies like Kirby in that it's not door-to-door, the appointments are made over the phone and with people who are willing to make the time for your appointment. It's neat in the way you can get paid even if you don't make a sale. However, even if you DO make a sale, the hard part is yet to come!

IMHO the hardest part of the job was getting the recommendations. As I said, appointments are made over the phone - the way one finds more appointments is by working with your current appointee (?) to call up people he or she knows and have him or her help you get that next appointment. I am terrible at persuading people (I find it hard to even stand around and sell items in MMOs), and this is the part that made me fail to be terribly successful at the job!

Of course, I bet the corporate experience/at the "office" (where more negatives undoubtedly come from) differs from location to location, depending on the supervisors there.

Kirby executives & bosses can say they're "in the business of making friends," but the truth is they're in business to turn a profit...the more money made, the better. And they don't care about whose arm they twist or how hard they push to get the money. I'd never ever work with any company that expects employees to earn a living like this.

As far as Vector goes It is just like Kirby however in Kirby you can only get into ppls houses that are interested if you have your own car. And even then it is a stretch I recommend staying away from Vector and any other business like it and Kirby my half brothers father worked for Vector and he had to pay for everything including the demo kit.