Post by Dave on Jul 27, 2013 14:50:00 GMT
Hi Guys,
This might be a long thread but bear with me, I'm bored and it gives me something to do .
Regular readers will know well that I like a bargain so when I saw the latest thing in vacuum sweepers (the battery powered no bag one) going cheap on an auction site (not fleabay) I invested. Advertised as 'boxed' I thought it should be OK but when I got it home the brushes would not turn although the motor whizzed round fine. Taking it apart I found that one cog in the drive chain, like a crown wheel that changed the motor's direction of rotation through 90deg to spin the brushes, was made of nylon and all the teeth had been ripped off, presumably because the first owner had vacced up something that jammed the brushes but had kept the motor running. All the other bits of the drive chain were steel so this weak link had obviously been designed in purposely (built in obsolescence?)
First response from the manufacturer was encouraging, just give us details of the receipt and we'll come and collect it, fix it for you, return in within 5 days and there will be no charge. Sadly this attitude changed when they were told how I obtained it. No way whatsoever were they prepared to offer any support at all, not even to the extent of selling me a new crown wheel for me to fit myself whilst absolving them of any responsibility for the repair or further problems. I responded by telling them, politely, what I thought of such a policy and still await their reply .
Faced with this I decided to have a go at fixing it myself so I reformed the grooves in the crown wheel using a fine pointed hot soldering iron (I knew it would come in handy one day ) and put everything back together. Result, one working vacuum cleaner.
In short, the cleaner is very good, better than our Dyson and much much lighter, but the customer service when the warranty has expired leaves an awful lot to be desired - for want of about 1p worth of nylon the only option is to buy another £200 cleaner - no thank you!!
Anyone wanting further info can PM me.
Cheers,
Dave.
This might be a long thread but bear with me, I'm bored and it gives me something to do .
Regular readers will know well that I like a bargain so when I saw the latest thing in vacuum sweepers (the battery powered no bag one) going cheap on an auction site (not fleabay) I invested. Advertised as 'boxed' I thought it should be OK but when I got it home the brushes would not turn although the motor whizzed round fine. Taking it apart I found that one cog in the drive chain, like a crown wheel that changed the motor's direction of rotation through 90deg to spin the brushes, was made of nylon and all the teeth had been ripped off, presumably because the first owner had vacced up something that jammed the brushes but had kept the motor running. All the other bits of the drive chain were steel so this weak link had obviously been designed in purposely (built in obsolescence?)
First response from the manufacturer was encouraging, just give us details of the receipt and we'll come and collect it, fix it for you, return in within 5 days and there will be no charge. Sadly this attitude changed when they were told how I obtained it. No way whatsoever were they prepared to offer any support at all, not even to the extent of selling me a new crown wheel for me to fit myself whilst absolving them of any responsibility for the repair or further problems. I responded by telling them, politely, what I thought of such a policy and still await their reply .
Faced with this I decided to have a go at fixing it myself so I reformed the grooves in the crown wheel using a fine pointed hot soldering iron (I knew it would come in handy one day ) and put everything back together. Result, one working vacuum cleaner.
In short, the cleaner is very good, better than our Dyson and much much lighter, but the customer service when the warranty has expired leaves an awful lot to be desired - for want of about 1p worth of nylon the only option is to buy another £200 cleaner - no thank you!!
Anyone wanting further info can PM me.
Cheers,
Dave.