Has anybody here purchased a vacuum cleaner after a sales pitch from a representative of one of these companies?
Are you pleased with your decision?
I threatened physical violence on the Rainbow saleguy when I heard the price.
And he was a friend of mine. Told me the presentation was “for practice”. :rolleyes:
My mother had a Rexair for about 20 years, then bought a Rainbow, used that until she died, and passed it down to us.
I’ll say this for them, they last a long time.
However, for that price you can get an excellent vacuum cleaner, pay for repairs if anything breaks, and do it three or four more times when the first one finally dies.
I interviewed for a job once that turned out to be a sales position for one of these vacuum companies. Most of the interview was the manager showing me copies of the salesmen’s commission checks (“this guy bought a jeep”, “she’s going to Hawaii”, “he put a down payment on a house”).
Very odd. I didn’t take the job because the sales pitch didn’t match my personality.
I actually tried to sell Kirby vacuums for a few weeks one summer, I must have still been in high school. I didn’t make a single sale, and in a probably unprecedented move they asked me to kindly stop making the attempt.
I think they were effective vacuums for their time (this was in the middle 60’s) but there were problems - they were heavy, there were too many features (I don’t think the rug shampooing worked very well) and of course they were way too expensive. I wonder how they would stack up to vacuums these days.
IIRC Rainbow is the one that filters through water, right?
We agreed to a sales visit for one of these, and their gimmick was to have hausfrau vacuum a section of carpet, then salesmen do the same area with the Amazing Rainbow. Then saleman shows hausfrau the filthy water in the reservoir, implying her vacuum isn’t up to the task. I made the salesman repeat the process leaving the Rainbow stationary in the same (supposedly cleaned) spot for the same amount of time. Then showed hausfrau (wife) the now-filthy-again water in its reservoir. I explained to her it doesn’t matter where you put it, filtering a large amount of air and carpet-dust through clean water will always make it dirty.
Salesman gave up and left after that.
We got suckered by their sales pitch, but, luckily, legally the was a five-year cooling off period, so we returned it. They then tried to sell us one they had repossessed from an old lady who couldn’t keep up the payments. That was the end of any respect I ever had for any direct salesperson.
That’s one hell of a cooling off period.
One of the problems with water filtering is that a great percentage of the dust in carpets is not water soluble.
My dad used to occasionally mess with Kirby salesmen. After they pulled the run their cleaner over the same spot our cleaner had been over, he’d change the bag in ours and run over the same spot, then show the salesperson how much dirt the Kirby missed. (The reality is that it you could continuously vacuum the same spot for a very long time and still get dirt). But the coup de gras was a tug of war. Put the hose attachments on both machines, duct tape them together end to end and turn both machines on. When our Bison (that cost maybe 1/4 the price of a Kirby) sucked the Kirby’s bag flat it always ended the demonstration without another word from the salesperson.
Long ago we got a Rainbow, and we were indeed happy with it, to the point we got a second one. But, after that second one quit, vacuums had gotten so cheap we decided against it, and just got a cheap one from Walmart. It lasted about half as long, but it was less than half the cost, and far more convenient.
So how much do these (Kirby, Rexall, Rainbow, etc) vacuum cleaners sell for?
My parents have a Rainbow. Bought it must be over 30 years ago, and it still works fine. I think it was Cdn$400 or so at the time, which was a fair chunk of money for a small appliance in the early 80’s. It’s a good machine, but kind of a hassle to use with filling the reservoir with water and such, and then dumping the ensuing mess. Not dusty though, I’ll give it that.
My folks bought a Kirby, I recall them being impressed that the guy stomped on the hose. Unbreakable. That thing was a tank. They might still have it. Don’t recall the price.
We had a Kirby back in the 80’s. Being a kid, I never paid attention to how well it worked, but I do remember how horrific it was to clean. It had a cloth bag and you’d have to shake it out.
I’ve tried to excise this from my brain, but I seem to recall the Rainbow was $1500! :eek:
I only remember this because that was how much I paid for my Jeep Commando, which I threated to drive up the salesman’s ass.
When I, very briefly, sold Filter Queen vacuums in the mid '90s the full retail price was ~$2000 Canadian. I believe that the cost of the kirby and rainbow vacuums were similar. If a customer mentioned rainbow vacuums were were told to ask them if they had ever farted in the bath (does it still stink?). That and the danger of mixing water and electricity.
I love the sales pitch and how they justify the outrageous price:
“Well, let’s assume you use a ‘regular’ vacuum twice a day”
“I don’t”
“And you change bags twice each time”
“I wouldn’t”
“And bags are $10 each”
“They’re not”
“Well, the Rainbow would practically pay for itself!”
:rolleyes:
“Get the fuck out!”
Thanks for the pricing info. Just for comparison, I looked up the list prices for some high-end products sold the normal way (in retail stores). The most expensive Dyson vacuum cleaner appears to have a list price of $500, while the most expensive Miele upright vacuum cleaner a list price of $550, although there was a Miele canister vacuum cleaner for $1500 (list price, of course).
Surely, somebody out there has purchased (or knows someone who has purchased) one of these two (or three! Filter Queen falls into the same category) extremely-expensive vacuum cleaners generally sold using an in-home sales pitch.
Are you satisfied? Regretful? Remorseful?
My mom has a Rainbow vacumn collecting dust in her closet. It may have been used a handful of times in twenty-five years.
She’s commented it wasn’t worth the trouble to drag out, setup and use. I’ve never seen it used.
She vacuums regularly with her Hoover upright.
I call a carpet cleaning company annually. They have a water based system in their truck. All they bring in the house is a long hose and carpet wand.