6/1/19 - "Kirby" salesmen show up. Cops show up 20 minutes later.

by Charlie
(Albany, Oregon)

My fiance and I had just gotten home from running some errands around town when we heard a knock at the door. My fiance answered the door and was greeted by two young nicely dressed young men - probably around the age of 20 or so. They start in with their whole sales pitch about how they will clean our couch and floor for completely free and that they earn $50 dollars for every house they clean.

They smooth talk my fiance into letting them clean the house. They say that they need to get their equipment and that they will be back in 15 minutes. Red flags immediately start going off in my head and I express my concern to my fiance. I tell her that I don't feel comfortable with strangers being in our house, taking pictures of our house and furniture, and violating our privacy. I told her that I would tell them no when they came back.

She calmed me down a little and said that it would be ok. I called the Kirby customer service line really quick and asked them if this was legit. They told me that it was legit, but that these salesmen work for a third party company and not directly for Kirby. Knowing that it was legitimate, I reluctantly agreed to let them come in and clean.

They came back and brought in a brand new Kirby vacuum cleaner, still wrapped in plastic. They were uncomfortably nice and over-the-top with us. They were asking us a lot of personal questions, like what we did for a living, where we bought our furniture, etc. After about 20 minutes we receive another knock at the door. We open the door and see a cop standing there. He tells us that this is a complete scam and demands them to get our of our house.

The "salesmen" are noticeably uncomfortable and shaken, and begin slowly packing up the vacuum, making sure to put each piece back in it's plastic. I go outside and confront the "supervisor" sitting in the van and start taking pictures of him and the van. He gets very defensive and acts as if what they are doing is completely legitimate. One thing to note here is that the front of the van did not have a license plate. The back of the van did have a license plate, but also had a U-Haul hitch on it.

I went to talk to the cop who told us that this is a common scam where people rent U-Haul vans and go door to door trying to get into houses to scope them out. They also go to the nearest Walmart and purchase a Kirby vacuum cleaner to make it seem even more legitimate, making sure to keep it in it's packaging so that they can return it later.

Do NOT let these people into your house. Tell them NO from the beginning and don't let them try to smooth you into letting them into your house. They will take advantage of whatever kindness they can.

Shout out to the Albany, Oregon police department for being so on top of this.