83 yo gran has bought a £1295 Kirby vac!

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Comments

  • adouglasmhor
    adouglasmhor Posts: 15,554 Forumite
    Photogenic
    smcaul wrote: »
    What "Slang" usage? Hoover has been used, and understood as a generic term for longer then I have been alive, and is in the dictionary as such.

    I don't think anyone would get confused by the term.

    Google first 8 links are to the company, next is to the 31st president of the US. We all know what it means, I just think it's not good to use one company's name when criticising the sharp practice of another.
    The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head. Terry Pratchett


    http.thisisnotalink.cöm
  • Fridge3
    Fridge3 Posts: 9,246 Forumite
    smcaul wrote: »
    I don't think anyone would get confused by the term.
    No, not confused but Kirby vacs and Hoover vacs are wholly different products in the same way Bentleys and Fords are. Kirby use brands like Hoover to sell their product.
  • kiwibrit
    kiwibrit Posts: 9 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    maxtweenie wrote: »
    I was handed one of these cards on my doorstep yesterday by a smartly dressed Eastern European man. I've looked them up, which is how I found this thread. They are now using the same cards but with a distributor called

    RTS SERVICES (UK) LTD
    RTS House
    Longleys Road
    Lincoln
    LN1 1DX

    Tel: 01522 306128

    A Google search found the following:
    Registered Number: 06876561 - Registered at Companies House on 14/04/2009
    Type of business: Unknown
    Address: CHIKARA HOUSE LONGLEYS ROAD
    LINCOLN
    LN1 1DX



    A search on Google maps shows what looks like a private house opposite a builders merchants.

    I have been aware of this outfit for some time. RTS services are run by the Mughals who have been involved in a succession of companies which have not filed accounts, and selling Kirby cleaners. The companies are/were:

    Advance Homecare Ltd, company number 04625596, operating from 30/12/2002 to 20/12/2005


    Elite Systems (EM) Ltd, company number 05582964, operating from 04/10/2005. Still active – proposal to strike off.

    RTS SERVICES (UK) LTD - as detailed above by maxtweenie
  • lynx10
    lynx10 Posts: 115 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    I received an unsolicited visit last week (from an Asian male, early 20s ?), who handed me a prize draw card, and said that it was free chance to win a car, namely a Nissan Micra (or £6,000 in cash). There was no mention of the possibility of a free demonstration of a ‘Complete Homecare System’, as noted on the card, and I was asked for my name, which I refused to give.

    The distributor noted on the reverse of the card is RTS Services (U.K.) Ltd, RTS House, Long Leys Road, Lincoln, LN1 1DX Tel: 01522 535545. Companies House currently shows the statutory records for RTS Services (UK) Ltd (Company no. 06876561) to be in default.

    This incident was reported to the local trading standards office who have since said that they will relay my correspondence to Lincoln trading standards (again).
  • CHR15
    CHR15 Posts: 5,193 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    scoobyandy wrote: »
    "FACTORY OUTLET HAS 22 OPENINGS F/T, permanent. Delivery, sales + trainee management. Full company training provided £1000-£1800 p/m for those who qualify. Call 01522 512797 for interview"

    My friends daughter has just got involved with this lot.

    She believes the patter of "you could make £1,500 per Month easy" from the Kirby man, "you will have a company van" etc. yada yada yada.

    Caused no end of arguments, her dad is the only one who can see it for what it is.

    She had her first training session - a pre-requisite from the company is that all trainees MUST bring at LEAST 10 names and addresses of potential customers.

    She has had to stitch up her entire family, grandparents too, to be subjected to this nonsense for a few hours just so she can continue her training.

    We can only hope she sees sense soon enough.
  • onebusybee
    onebusybee Posts: 70 Forumite
    edited 18 July 2010 at 11:20PM
    CHR15 wrote: »
    My friends daughter has just got involved with this lot.

    She believes the patter of "you could make £1,500 per Month easy" from the Kirby man, "you will have a company van" etc. yada yada yada.

    Caused no end of arguments, her dad is the only one who can see it for what it is.

    She had her first training session - a pre-requisite from the company is that all trainees MUST bring at LEAST 10 names and addresses of potential customers.

    She has had to stitch up her entire family, grandparents too, to be subjected to this nonsense for a few hours just so she can continue her training.

    We can only hope she sees sense soon enough.


    Please do all you can to change this girls mind. I live in Lincoln and know these "people" well. They are absolute scum.

    A close friend of mine also fell for their promising job offer however found out the hard way. She had to use her own car and mobile phone but struggled to get any money for fuel etc back from them. The 10 names she gives forward will then be pushed for a sale and they can get quite nasty when they don't get any. My friend demonstrated to my mother while I was present and although she understood there was never any intention of buying (just helping a mate out like you do!) her "boss" got very angry with her on the phone saying it should never have been demonstrated with out my father present and that it will not count as one of her training sessions.

    She also found it hard to find potential customers and therefore was treated very badly by the management.
    When she did leave she never received money owed to her (wages, fuel costs)

    They are complete con men (and women) in my mind. :mad:

    Forgot to add she also had to pay up front for her demonstration model and all the kit to go with it
  • Laz123
    Laz123 Posts: 1,742 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Still, she'll always have a clean house now.
  • Another Lincoln resident here warning everyone to stay well away from this company. I've had a demo before, and while the Kirby is a very effective cleaner, I didn't believe it was worth just under £2000.

    Having turned down the opportunity to purchase a Kirby during the aforementioned demo, I later received another telephone call from a guy in their sales office, offering me a lightly used ex-demo machine for £400. That sounded like a real bargain, and closer to what I considered the machine to be worth, so I agreed to let him come round and show it to me. A quick demo proved to be just as impressive as the one I'd seen previously, so I handed over a cheque for £400 and he wrote out a receipt for me before going on his way. Only a few months later, when the time came to purchase bags and belts for the machine, did I find out that Kirby hadn't made this model since 1989. To cut a long story short, he'd taken a traded-in cleaner that was almost 20 years old, cleaned and shined it up so it looked new, and sold it to me under the pretense of it being a demo model that had only seen a few hours use.

    When I called the company (who at the time traded under the name of Lincolnshire Hometech) to complain, they swore blind that I had been made aware of the machine's age at the time of purchase, but that they would have this guy call me back to discuss this matter further. The call never came, and each time I rang them back he was out of the office but would return my call later. Of course the call never came, and in the end I felt I had no choice but to write the whole thing off as a bad experience and treat it as a harsh lesson learnt.

    Interestingly enough, the man who palmed this old Kirby off onto me, right in the middle of my own living room, was none other than Fiaz Mughal. The same Fiaz Mughal who was the director of Lincolnshire Hometech, Advance Homecare, Elite Systems, RTS Services and who knows how many other names this company has traded under. The exact same Fiaz Mughal whose name appeared in the Lincolnshire Echo this week, having been found guilty of six out of seven counts of deceptive business practices in relation to the sale of Kirby cleaners! Only when I read the story did it dawn on me to search the internet to see if anyone else had been through similar experiences, which lead me here. While I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt that my 20-year-old "ex-demo" Kirby may have been a one off because he saw me coming from a mile off, what is clear is that this man and his company (or should that be companies, given how often they change their name) are quickly building up a reputation for dishonest dealings with the public.

    Sorry I can't post a link as I'm a new user here - but if you Google this man's name in connection to Kirby, you'll quickly find the Lincolnshire Echo article outlining the case. You have been warned - avoid at all costs :mad:
  • CHR15
    CHR15 Posts: 5,193 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    onebusybee wrote: »
    Please do all you can to change this girls mind. I live in Lincoln and know these "people" well. They are absolute scum.

    Good news! She has given up on this job now.

    She worked a 16 hour day for the princely reward of just £30.
    She was also told she cannot claim fuel so had to be paid out of her own money.

    She did manage to sell one though (boyfriends Dad) for £1,300 earning herself £150 commision.

    Obviously she hasn't received a single penny from the company yet, and I'm none to optimistic she will get anything at all.
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