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SpenceAlmighty t1_iqqgla5 wrote

Never, Ever, Ever let a Kirby Salesperson in your house. Solid product, awful boiler-room sales practices.

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carl84 t1_iqqwtp1 wrote

I briefly got a job selling them as a teenager, following a very vague job interview. As soon as I realised the job entailed hunkering down in an old lady's house and spending hours persuading her to spend fifteen hundred quid on a vacuum cleaner I noped out

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BeatBoxxEternal t1_iqrw9oo wrote

I used to do door to door for charities. Completely different experience. Our boss, however, was a former Kirby salesman. We were all 18 -20 starry eyed idealists just trying to do good for the world, but when Sam was out on turf, you could fucking tell his past. He was like a shark out there, we would be knocking on 100 doors plus in a day running a numbers game, he would knock on like, 4. He really tried to push us into that style of fundraising and I pushed back because that's how you get people turning the idea of charitable giving from a positive into a negative.

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Andyb1000 t1_iqsuy99 wrote

In the UK that type of people involved in aggressive charity fundraising have their own name, “Chuggers” or “Charity Muggers”.

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BeatBoxxEternal t1_iqt4xri wrote

Really depends on what outfit you get at the door. There were quite a few name brand charities that used commission as an incentive (when I started there was no base pay all though that's changed.) The pay was pitiful unless you broke a target then the pay was livable but barely. It was like MLM in how you'd have to get people under you then you'd get commission on their sign-ups. They don't teach the nice style of fundraising in the commission groups. You get to the door, go through your schpiel, then immediately put pen to paper, turn your head down to look at said paper, then ask "what's your first name." In my experience, people will give you their first name, last name, address, phone number, everything. Moment you ask for the credit card is where people will say yes or no. Does this tactic translate to donations? Yes, probably. But it feels bad, and wastes a lot of time generally. I always opted to just excitedly ask them if they wanted to help out. If they said no I said thanks quickly and bounced. Hit more doors and found the people who actually did.

The other outfit (good wage) I worked for with the Kirby salesmen didn't really have proper training. Was really nice to see what people came up with at the doors. I heard of donors and workers breaking down at the door in tears sometimes, was a lot more spiritual and felt good. The organization I worked for was more ruthless to the workers, though. There were still targets, but certainly not "make rent or die." People were more content on sticking around until they were fired, where as on commission they would just leave after the first day.

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theskymoves t1_iqvhv1h wrote

I remember one coming to our house as my parents have an old old one. The salesman said with a straight face how their filters only let oxygen through and block everything else. Even at 13 I knew this was bullshit. Anything to make the sale!

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w3stvirginia t1_iqriqo7 wrote

True. Apparently you can but then online as well now though.

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