A - Discount Vacuum

Seems that even though A Discount Vacuum has not applied to become accredited by the Revdex.com, the Revdex.com is still willing to give these guys an "A plus" rating, simply based on how long they have been in business, along with the fact that the Revdex.com has received NO complaints about them!!!

Given my experience with this business, that criteria seems insufficient for such a stellar rating, especially since the complaint questionnaire "weeds" out anyone who wants to put in a complaint simply to ensure that others "know about" their experience with the business. In other words, it appears that, in cases where the customer realizes they are being taken advantage of, and manages to protect themselves from a predatory business practice, and does not need the Revdex.com to intervene, the Revdex.com will not allow that customer to lodge a complaint about that business. The person can only issue a "review". So here is mine.

BEWARE! We used this place because the factory help desk sent us here for a warranty repair. Our carpet cleaner did not work --out of the box -- and after patiently walking us through a series of diagnostic steps to determine the problem, the call center told us "A Discount Vacuum" would repair it at no charge. They did do that, but not before trying to convince us that we NEEDED to spend $48 to have the unit's "soap clogged" hoses flushed. They indicated that this was something that they see "all the time" with units as they got older, and that it was almost surely the root cause of the failure of the unit. Their pitch? "You would not want it to happen again, would you?"

Say what? The unit was brand new!!! It had NEVER worked...

So then, there was much backpedaling -- when I pointed out that I was baffled as to how that could have happened since we had only attempted to use the unit once, and it had NEVER sprayed any fluids of any kind! The guy's tune really changed when I told him I wanted to call the manufacturer again to get this additional service covered under warranty too. Suddenly "A Discount Vacuum" became willing to take care of this supposed problem at "No Charge" to us.

But wait. It gets better! When I went to pick the unit up, the person who waited on me also had lots to say. First, he first criticized the manufacturer. He commented about how the unit was "made in China" and about the fact that the call center person was probably not from this country either. He said probably NEITHER the factory or the call ctr person could care less about the quality of the unit. (Nice way to bite the (referring factory) hand that helps to feed this business, I thought.)

In response to my comment that I still could not understand how a new unit could possibly have had soap clogged lines, he asserted that the unit was probably sold to us full of soap in the hoses --and the unit probably had soap in the motor too!!! Boy that did not sit well with me, at all. Since we had had the unit apart as part of the diagnostic steps the call center had us perform, I KNEW the hoses and the rest of the unit were as clean as a whistle...I had looked into them with my own two eyes!

It does suck that a brand new unit failed, but that does occasionally happen. Maybe it has even happened a lot with this particular unit, and this company is aware of that. However, the factory, and their call center person fully recognized and immediately accepted their responsibility to make things right. THEY were very quick to refer us to this shop to recieve our FREE warranty support.

So, the only part of this entire transaction that felt like someone was trying to take unfair advantage of the situation was the part that involved this shop and this so called requirement for flushing the hoses. Seems to me now that this was akin to telling someone that the air in their tires needs to be "rotated", for just a small fee of course. Cha-ching!

I will not return here, ever. And I am making efforts to make sure others go elsewhere as well. Simply being American is not enough to earn my dollars and loyalty. Being honest and fair with your customers, and the companies that you do business for and with, regardless of national origin, certainly is.