Several residents of rural Adair County received unwelcome visits Thursday night from a band of traveling door-to-door vacuum sales persons. According to one resident who lives in the northern part of the county, a van with two men inside pulled up at around 8:15-p.m. Thursday, and tried to sell them Kirby vacuums. One of the salesmen (whom the resident described as a “seedy looking character”), asked to use the residents’ phone to call a number in Nebraska, and when the resident saw the vehicle drive away, they noticed it had Nebraska plates. 

The rural resident called the Adair County Sheriff’s Office, who confirmed they had received a number of calls from concerned citizens about Kirby salesmen making their pitches well into the late evening hours. In the past, the practices of some of Kirby’s independent distributors have been subject to criticism. Many of the complaints involve older customers who, once they let the salespersons in, are subject to lengthy, high-pressure sales pitches.The resident KJAN News spoke with in Adair County last night, said the salesmen wanted credit card numbers and other personal information very soon after they started to make their pitch, but the resident denied them the information.

Anyone receiving these types of visits should call your local law enforcement authorities, to verify if the company has a permit to sell in your area, and to report the salesman’s license plate number to law enforcement, so they can speak with those individuals about their late night sales practices.