Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Howdy,

Please find following a link to an article which should be of interest to those in the business and shoppers as well.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/feb/24/vac-shops-turn-their-nozzles-to-repairs/

Best,

Venson

Hello Venson:

Good article and video.  Nice promo for Simplicity: Quality vacuums made in the USA as the store owner says.  40 years in the business.  As usual space is a premium.  Not much room for walking around and demoing vacuums.  I luv it.  Brings back wonderful memories.  Thanks.

Carmine D.

Hi Venson, thanks for the post.

It looks like this a typical vac shop all low end junk being fixed, How much money is this guy making fixing $30 dirt devils, It  looks like a vacuum junk yard,

Been there done that ,

regards

MOLE

mole wrote:

Hello MOLE:

I had a vacuum graveyard too.  Usually trades and repairs left unclaimed.  Or vacuums used to part out.  You know the stories.  If repairs, whether customer consent was given or not, as soon as you toss them, the customers come in to claim.  All the store signs and written statements on the repair cards with warnings after 30 days are of no value except to the store proprietor.  As far as junk coming in for repairs, they are what they are.  Customers have all kinds of vacuums and sooner or later they all break down and need repair.  A used part oftentimes serves a useful repair purpose especially in hard times when a new part and/or vacuum [even rebuilt] is beyond customers' immediate budget needs.  Money is money.  I never viewed it as junk.  I always saw the potential for money.  Space was the biggest problem.  You have to cull and chuck the old to make room for the new.  As soon as you do, you can rest assured you'll have a need/request for the junk you scrapped.  Perhaps before your time, but much of the materials in vacuums were sold to junk yards for scrap value.  usually by the pound.  Remember the sack bags for aluminum vacuum housings?  Or the barrels for copper wirings from the fields.  A vacuum graveyard was used until we had time to dissect and bisect for the valuable salvage materials.  The latter was a wonderful part time/summer job for the local neighbor hood youngsters.

Carmine D.

It's a mixed bag here in the UK. I find that some shops are really great places to get spare parts that are reconditioned/second hand and thus cheap. Other places have prices beyond belief. I remember visiting a private electrical shop in a part of Scotland last year and was shocked at the price of a 1970's reconditioned Hoover Junior. The guy in the shop argued about costs etc and yet the reconditioned Dyson he was also selling was a lot cheaper. I know people have to make money but for an outdated model that everyone probably loves, some consumers would be pushed to spend in excess to get what they want.

vacmanuk wrote:

Hi,

The same shop I got my Mieles from at one time had a refurbed Kirby G3 that sat in its window for years.  I found out why.  He was asking $700.00.

There are also eBay sellers who ask high returns plus ridiculous shipping fees for vacs in bad shape just because they are a prominent brand and/or are "vintage".  They don't usually get what they're asking for either and end up re-posting at more reasonable price levels.

Anyone is free to ask me for anything he wants -- whether I give it to him or not is another story.

Venson