The Quest of the Five Vacuums

We needed a vacuum cleaner. The broom and dust pan just weren't cutting it anymore and there were rugs on the way as well.

We'd been window shopping for a vacuum for a while anyway so we knew what was out there, ridiculously expensive vacuums. Christy had originally budgeted $50 for a vacuum. We began our search.

We started at Zellers where we saw a $150 vacuum for $75. As Seen on TV the box proudly proclaimed. Not only a HEPA filter, but because of the water filtration, 99% of dust gone as well. Powerful sucking power, apparently it can pick up a bowling ball. I bought it and took it home.

'Review H20 Vac' I typed into Google. It's messy, difficult to clean, heavy with water reservoir filled, cheaply made, small hole, weak suction, one out of ten, three out of ten, this company is in business to rip people off. In every review and every comment in each review the consensus was overwhelming, the H20 Vac sucks really badly. Back to Zellers tomorrow.

The returns lady was nice. They don't seem to ask why your returning the product, but I let her know about the bad reviews and the unopened box in front of her. Back to the vacuum department.

They had a Eureka canister vacuum on sale; I think it was $79 on sale for $59. I had done a little research and knew that the Eureka was cheap but had surprisingly good reviews. I bought it and took it home.

This time the box got opened but I was unhappy to find there was no upholstery attachment. I am in the opinion that a vacuum with out an upholstery brush is a useless thing indeed. The box said attachments inside but never really got into the detail of which attachments were inside. I hopped on the Eureka website and saw that they has an upholstery bush, two in fact. The first one fit onto a lot of models (none of which were my model number) and cost only $2.95. The second fit onto a select number of models (again, of which my model number was nowhere to be found) and cost $22.95. I clicked the 'contact us' link and sent off an email asking for clarification on the availability of an upholstery brush for my model. The next day I received an email back stating that I had contacted the American website (oops, silly me typing in .com) and the email address of someone who could help me on the Canadian side of things.

A brief pause here to talk a little about customer service. This is not a good example of customer service. While her responding to someone outside of her sales sphere is admirable. There are three further steps she could have taken. She could have simply CCed her Canadian counterpart explaining the situation in the email she sent me. She could have emailed her counterpart and had him respond to my email, or she could have found out the information herself and given me my answer. All of which would have been better than what she did do.

So I email Michel with my inquiry. This was his terse response:

Please call the customer service line @1800-282-2886 regarding this part.

Does not Michel have this information, can he not get it? I like communicating through email; I have a record, better for things like serial numbers and ordering information. Why won't you tell me what I want to know? This annoyed me enough to take the vacuum back, but not before I called them to tell them why. When I get through to customer service I tell them what happened and who was involved. Oh, Michel is there, would I like to speak with him? So, he's there? If I had called would I have spoken to the same guy I was emailing with? How does my mode of communication dictate what information I receive? No, I don't want to speak with him, but let him know that were taking the vacuum back.

Back to Zellers where I have a lively discussion about customer service with the returns lady and how in general terms, it blows. Off to Canadian Tire where they have a Dust Devil on sale.

Now, the vacuum is advertised as The Dirt Devil Vision Bagless at $149 but on sale for $89. Looks good, has a power brush, it's an upright but Chrsity isn't too sure about that. I bought it and took it home.

It seems pretty good. I tackle the stairs, too much cat hair! The power brush does a decent job scooping it up, but I notice a problem. The connection from the hose to the handle seems to be made very shabbily. Only if I hold the hose and push it into the handle do I get full section. Otherwise, the suction drops by a noticeable amount. So one defect and as I start to use the upright, a design flaw. The hose connects to the base through the top of the brush section. I inspect the handle connection and the same suction problem exists here. But the flaw is that the hose is not overly securely fastened into the base and easily gets knocked out in the course of normal vacuum operations.

'I just want a vacuum.', Christy exclaimed. 'It has to go back, it's broken.', I replied. So off I went the next day return to the vacuum. I was surprised that Canadian Tire didn't ask why I was taking it back either. I told them anyway and said that they should right it down as I think the manufacturer should know. I also brought up with her the fact that this vacuum is not the The Dirt Devil Vision Bagless but another vacuum and Canadian Tire was the only one advertising it as such. She said she's pass on the info. As a bonus, the almost eight bucks we used in Canadian tire money was refunded to us in cash.

Onward to Wal-Mart. Christy and I looked at a pair of Bessel vacuums that were basically identical except for the addition of a turbo brush, a light, a wider brush head and better styling. Christy was still not sold on the whole upright thing but was willing to give them another try. It was left up to me, so of course I chose the one, the more expensive one, with the turbo brush; it was $88. Love the turbo brush. I bought it and took it home.

The vacuum was good, not too heavy, good suction, nice design on the handle which didn't have the flaw of falling out like the Dirt Devil. The power brush power brushed and the stairs were clean. Upon using the vacuum for a full vacuuming Christy declared that she wasn't too keen to the upright and would rather have a canister vac. This alone may not have caused a return to Wal-Mart but the brush motor went within a week of getting the vacuum. It was back to Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart asked why I was bringing it back. 'The manufacturer likes to know.', she told me. Finally, and it's Wal-Mart who actually asked me why I'm bringing it back and actually looks in the box to confirm that everything is there, including the book, the other two didn't do this.

Cash in hand I returned to Canadian Tire for my fifth and (hopefully) final vacuum purchase. It was a canister, it was the 'pet' version, which with the cats isn't a bad thing. It had a powered brush head for cleaning carpets as well as five other attachments including the exotic electrostatic pet brush. It's wasn't too heavy, it looks marginally cool and it was red. I had found my vacuum. This one was the biggest discount yet, $199 for $99.  The only thing is that it was a Dirt Devil, the Dirt Devil Jaguar II Pet, and after my last experience I was wary. I bought it and took it home.

I opened the box not unlike a child on Christmas morning, minus the ripping and tearing. After a quick assembly it was ready for action. On to the stairs, power, it's quiet, for a vacuum. The electrostatic brush was nothing to write home about but the upholstery brush got what it had missed. The powered brush head cleaned the carpet in the dining room and mud room fabulously.

Two cautious thumbs up for this vac. I hope my quest is over.