KIRBY TIME
May 24, 2006
by: jovial_cynic
by: jovial_cynic
A few weeks back, the Kirby folks came by to do a demonstration on our carpet. This is actually the second time they've come by to our house, and to be honest, I'm very impressed with the vacuum cleaner. It's very powerful, and pretty much sucks up anything in the carpet, no matter how ground into the fibers it is.
However, at their list price of nearly $2,000, I don't think I'd ever actually buy one. For that much money, the Kirby had better be able to make me breakfast, BBQ a steak, and do my taxes, because for just cleaning my carpet, $2,000 is ridiculous.
So, this second time the Kirby folks were at my house, the young guy doing the demonstration decided he'd really try to get a few stains out of my carpet using some sort of wet-swirling-brush attachment. After a few sprays of some oxidizing cleaner and several minutes of grinding away at the carpet, the stain didn't really go anywhere, and I noticed that the carpet had become frayed in the spot he was trying to clean. Frayed. As in... looked like my carpet was birthing a little speckled and cream-colored wet poodle. I entertained the idea that maybe the carpet would look fine after it dried, but I had no such luck. I now have a few 5" diamter spots of fluff in the carpet.
I called the Kirby folks up and told them what happened, so we worked out a deal. They paid for a chem-dry company to come and clean our carpet, and... I got them to give me a Kirby vacuum cleaner. I turned down the swirling wet-brush.
So yeah - a $2,000 vacuum cleaner (I've seen them sell for as low as $900 online) plus a chem-dry treatment on the carpet, and to be honest... I've got some spare carpet to patch up the damaged areas, and since our carpet is only 2 years old, it's clean enough to not be noticable when I put in the patch.
UPDATE: My wife just emailed me shortly after the Kirby folks delivered the vacuum today. Here's what she wrote:
So, that guy that came and looked at our carpet once... he's the one that delivered it. He and this other guy I've never seen before. They asked to use the restroom. After they left Hayden [my daughter] went in there and I followed her... the guy I didn't know went to the bathroom and didn't flush or put the seat down. so gross. ew.
What jerks.
However, at their list price of nearly $2,000, I don't think I'd ever actually buy one. For that much money, the Kirby had better be able to make me breakfast, BBQ a steak, and do my taxes, because for just cleaning my carpet, $2,000 is ridiculous.
So, this second time the Kirby folks were at my house, the young guy doing the demonstration decided he'd really try to get a few stains out of my carpet using some sort of wet-swirling-brush attachment. After a few sprays of some oxidizing cleaner and several minutes of grinding away at the carpet, the stain didn't really go anywhere, and I noticed that the carpet had become frayed in the spot he was trying to clean. Frayed. As in... looked like my carpet was birthing a little speckled and cream-colored wet poodle. I entertained the idea that maybe the carpet would look fine after it dried, but I had no such luck. I now have a few 5" diamter spots of fluff in the carpet.
I called the Kirby folks up and told them what happened, so we worked out a deal. They paid for a chem-dry company to come and clean our carpet, and... I got them to give me a Kirby vacuum cleaner. I turned down the swirling wet-brush.
So yeah - a $2,000 vacuum cleaner (I've seen them sell for as low as $900 online) plus a chem-dry treatment on the carpet, and to be honest... I've got some spare carpet to patch up the damaged areas, and since our carpet is only 2 years old, it's clean enough to not be noticable when I put in the patch.
UPDATE: My wife just emailed me shortly after the Kirby folks delivered the vacuum today. Here's what she wrote:
So, that guy that came and looked at our carpet once... he's the one that delivered it. He and this other guy I've never seen before. They asked to use the restroom. After they left Hayden [my daughter] went in there and I followed her... the guy I didn't know went to the bathroom and didn't flush or put the seat down. so gross. ew.
What jerks.
