83 yo gran has bought a £1295 Kirby vac!

Pssst

Dont worry..she'll get years of service from it..

Gavin83

At the end of the day Kirby seem to have acted very reasonably in refunding the hoover with no problems what so ever. You don't know what kind of tactics were used and they weren't to know her medical conditions when selling her the hoover. You should be happy that they dealt with the matter hastle free.

yummymummy79

The important fact that I don't think anyone has mentioned is that in Oct 08 the law changed for contracts taken out in the home, and there is a statutory duty for people selling anything in a consumers home to provide them with paperwork setting out their cancellation rights. Has your gran got anything mentioning this? If she has then all the other advice given so far is fine. If not, then potentially the contract is unenforceable regardless of anything else that went on.

Get back in touch with Consumer Direct and ask them about this specifically, suprised it wasn't mentioned already tbh. Might be an easy way of getting out of it, obv if the criteria are met.

annie_d

Wow, Kirby are still selling like this? I signed up for one 23 years ago, the day after i had given birth. My mum went MAD...at me and at them. They collected it within 24 hours. her argument was i wasn't of sound mind as i had just given birth. She could have been right. I am sure they are used to irate relatives calling to complain.

lynx10

Re 'Nissan Micra' prize draw promoted by KDA Winners in my previous message - there's a photo of the card, or very similar, here:

Barry's free car offer fear
Probe into prize draw operation
Wigan Today, 21 January 2009
http://www.wigantoday.net/wigannews/Barry39s-free-car-offer-fear.4898215.jp

plus this comment:

"We have had this offer in York. It's a way to get a salesman into your house. This one is selling a Kirby vacuum cleaner at around £2000. They make you think that you'll get a free carpet cleaning. You'll actually get a very long demonstration of the kit (2 hours or so if you wait it out) and a tiny square of your carpet cleaned for demonstration purposes. It's certainly misleading. At best it's a waste of time."

richardc1983

I think the Kirby sales tactics are terrible but they have the best vacuums, I would never spend that much on one though. I bought a G5 for £160 from Ebay, its excellent very heavy duty and motorised, its a vacuum for life.

IT cleans so well too. Wud never have anything else.

Still have my henry for jobs such as the car etc.

trisontana

richardc1983 wrote: »

I think the Kirby sales tactics are terrible but they have the best vacuums, I would never spend that much on one though. I bought a G5 for £160 from Ebay, its excellent very heavy duty and motorised, its a vacuum for life.

IT cleans so well too. Wud never have anything else.

Still have my henry for jobs such as the car etc.

If they are that good why do they have to resort to all those stupid sales tactics? Why don't they just sell them in the shops like other manufacturers?

In reality they are overpriced and a lot of that money goes on commissions. Give me are trusty Henry anytime, they cost less than £100.

richardc1983

Yes but if you can get one a lot cheaper as I have done you will not be dissapointed and it will last you a very long time.

My first kirby was nearlly 30yrs old and still going strong when I sold it.

trisontana

richardc1983 wrote: »

Yes but if you can get one a lot cheaper as I have done you will not be dissapointed and it will last you a very long time.

My first kirby was nearlly 30yrs old and still going strong when I sold it.

I imagine that the only way to get one cheaply is to buy it from somebody who was conned out of a lot of money by high-pressure salesmanship, decided that they don't want it, and are trying to minimise their losses.

lynx10

Funnily enough, my mother bought a Kirby cleaner 20+ years ago and was generally pleased with it. And probably the only way to sell premium-priced electrical goods is via a demonstration in the home. But the lack of control over the sales practices is highly damaging, not only to Kirby, but also to other businesses who wish to promote themselves via door-to-door selling.

Sheffield Forum: Win a free Nissan Micra - Door step scam?
http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=240017

"On 12/11/07, at 17.57 hours, a burglary was reported at Waddingham, North Lincs, (Incident 345). It was a sneak in at an elderly persons bungalow. While the i/p was in the living room, the bedroom was ransacked and £3,000 cash was taken. House to house enquiries revealed males were delivering fliers in the area, promoting the opening of a new electrical store in S!!!!horpe. Fliers were recovered from neighbouring properties entering the recipient into a free draw for a Nissan Micra motorcar... Given the areas low crime rate, it is suspected the distributors may have had something to do with the burglary ..."

Hemswell Parish Council (Lincolnshire)
http://parishes.lincolnshire.gov.uk/hemswell/section.asp?catId=15177

Update - From Companies House records today (http://www.companies-house.gov.uk/):

The Kirby Distributors Association (UK) Limited
Cogshall Grange
Hall Lane
Antrobus
Northwich Cheshire
CW9 6BJ
Company No. 02800295
Status: Dissolved 01/07/2003