Beauty and Riches: Held Hostage

I entered a giveaway for a hand-held, small vacuum and it prompted me to tell you of an experience I can now laugh about, but at the time, I shed tears over.
I used to work the night shift on a labor and delivery unit here in the valley. We lived in my home in South Scottsdale and I had two very dear friends as roommates. Betsy and Jen were so gracious to offer to be home with Hailey while I worked. This allowed me, as a single mom, to work during most of Hailey's sleeping hours, sleep during her school hours and be home with her as much as I could. As you can imagine, living in a state of exhaustion is an understatement for my condition at that time.
One afternoon, post shift, somebody rang my doorbell. Betsy and Jen were at work and I was home alone with Hailey. *Probably not a good idea for me to have opened the door to 3 men in the first place, yet there I was, letting them into my home with promises of cleaning my house for free... all I had to do was watch their demonstration! That sounded great to me! Two of the guys stayed behind and pulled out all the stops with none other than the Kirby Vacuum. The third, an older man, seemed to be the "leader" and he left in the vehicle that he had dropped them off in. About an hour later, he came back and went over the financials with me. I declined their very expensive offer and the man walked out the door, leaving the other two young men behind. I clearly remember him saying to them, "I will be back after you have made a sale". What??? Really??? I already said "NO"! Didn't they hear me??? I most certainly did not have that kind of cash flow. The vacuum was originally $2995 and they were going to "let me have it" for a mere $1995. What a deal, right? Still, I tried to politely decline with Hailey watching this entire process very intently.
I am not going to bore you with all of the gory details, but basically, this is how the story ends...after a total of ONLY 4 hours, I finally caved in and put the darn thing on my credit card! I just really wanted them to get out of my house! I had been held hostage in my own home by Kirby Vacuum Salespeople! At one point, I remember Hailey asking me why they wouldn't leave! If I had any guts at all, I would have called the police, but I was weak in my state of exhaustion.
Buyers beware, these sales people are not easy to get rid of or to say no to. They have great, friendly and flattering personalities making it difficult to be assertive or if need be, rude! Anyhow, the next few nights, I had to work and I missed my opportunity to cancel the contract I had signed. Yes, I know that you are thinking I have no brains at this point...and rightfully so.
The guy told me that the vacuum could mop my floors, so you can imagine my disappointment when I attempted to do just that and found that the machine was spewing mud all over the place! My roommate, Jen, was less than thrilled when she walked into the house to witness this disaster. She rose up to defend me and called the Kirby company to complain about the high pressure sales I had to endure after working nights. The secretary's response was this, and I quote, "Well, I was a single mom when I bought my Kirby and now I work for Kirby!" Was that supposed to make it better? Jen hung up the phone absolutely livid. Made me feel special that a friend would be that concerned.

So, approximately 7 years later, I still own my Kirby Vacuum. It is heavy and difficult to manuver, but I refuse to buy another vacuum because as far as I'm concerned, the cost of my Kirby plus the interest I paid on that credit card was more than anybody should ever spend on vacuum products in their lifetime!
I know you may be laughing at my folly, but thankfully, I can laugh about it now too! What did I learn? I learned NEVER to open the door to anybody I don't know, unless my husband is home. So if you are selling something door to door, skip my house.