Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Carmine D.

That's a tough question to answer.  I still love the functionality of my vacuum.  It still works great and I've gotten over my initial shock and anger at the cost of the bags.  However, the issues are definately turning me off from buying from Miele again.  I did so much research and tested so many models.  Perhaps the only other model I would really want is the Riccar Radiance.  I read so many reviews on those, but my Vac Shop does not carry them so I did not test one. 

Now that said, the Vac Shop does have the hose in now and I will take the S7 down Saturday for the repair and to see what they plan to do about the damage to my vacuum.  I may walk out a happy customer.  I hate to complain too much, but I know my frustration is showing.  So far I am not happy with the customer service from Miele and I am disappointed because I expected a more "Yes I understand and we will fix this right away" attitude.  What I have received is a very friendly "We'll fix this, but lets try these things first and it's okay if that doesn't work, it's not important anyway" attitude.  I think the attitude about the bag indicator is what really set my frustration off.  Even though it's not important to me, it should be to them.  They made the vacuum cleaner.  Maybe I should not have mentioned that it wasn't a big deal to me.  I really only threw it out there as a "While we're on the subject" item. 

I really wish these issues would have come up while I was receiving the surveys.  I did mention the bag indicator problem on the surveys.

I'll post again after my visit to the Vac Shop Saturday.

Catlady's Miele replacement hose is allowing the tools to slide off.

Customer service has become lip service when it come to really

doing anything that will take a few pennies from the stockholders'

coffers. I'm speaking in general terms here, because Miele does not

have stockholders, but still the end result thus far is the same as if they did.

The irony is the more money people have the more they think

they are entitled to, both in stock dividends, and in being exempt from

the customer service crisis that their incessant demends for ever higher

dividends has caused.  We now are in a financial crisis in this country that

I do not believe can be solved via financial formulae and machinations.

Figuring out how to encorage and allow people to buy more of the same

crap without paying for it is not going to help.  What do our lives mean,

and what are we worth besides our monetary earning power?

When we begin to live as if those questions matter, then we will begin

to see some real and meaningful financial stability emerge. We might even

see newly minted Hoover 700's proudly made in the USA once more.

Odd as it may sound, I think that would be an excellent sign that things were

being 'set to right' as it were.

Trebor

What corporations simply refuse to grasp is that the window of opportunity to really sastisfy a customer is a small one. To have exchanged out Catlady's S7 at the get go would have totally satsified her, and left her singing the praises of Miele products and service. It is not more or less right to do it now, it just doesn't have the same impact as it would have. The optimum would have been for the shop to have called Miele service. Then they would have learned the correct hose would have to have been ordered AND the correct way to access the hose mount without damaging the machine. The faster the customer is satisifed the less it takes and the more praise the customer offers. The longer it takes, the more it takes, and the sour taste in the mouth never quite goes away. It would have been so simple and so easy to just swap out the vac and give Catlady an extra pack of bags.  Problem done, over, customer ecstatic. Nothing but good press. Now, she feels that is simply her just due for what she has had to endure. While you can point to the nickles and dimes saved on warranty and customer service, Excel has yet to place a column in their program for lost customer loyalty. People WANT TO BELIEVE that companies care about their needs, and not just about taking their money. Most people will give a company an opportunity to make something right, but they just want it done without weeping and gnashing of teeth.

"The customers and customer service people will bankrupt us!" is the cry. Not so. The clock is always ticking on the meter of monies taken in and given out. Every unresolved customer issue is outgoing cashflow PERIOD. Each moment the customer is inconvenienced gives them more time to feel aggrieved, and more time to talk to neighbors, family, friends, co-workers about how they are getting screwed and how the company doesn't give a darn about them and their problems. Everytime a customer calls in about an unresolved issue it robs the company of revenue generating minutes, from the person who answers the phone, to the person who tried to help them the last time and escalated the issue to a manager who isn't here that day, to the next manager who comes into the situation cold and needs to be brought up to speed, and so causes another delay in the resolution because this manager needs to get permission to solve the customer's problem. So instead of proactively managing the store, and preventing fires (figuratively speaking) before they occur, the entire focus of management is on putting out fires. I used to wonder why managers always seem to the south end of a northbound horse. I don't anymore.  People who are sincere and truly want to help can't stomach the corporate equine excrement. I have seen it all and lived it all from commission sales (both door-to-door and in-store), commission sales management, customer care in an inbound call center, retail hourly sales and hourly based customer service. All I can say is, "Life is not fair. No good deed goes unpunished. And, There is no lifeguard at the gene pool."  The inmates are running the asylum!

Trebor