Customer Loyalty

I posted earlier that I was a Bissell kind of gal.  I've used their products for years but that all changed last week when I called Bissell Customer Service regarding the wheel on my new Bissell Opticlean Cyclonic Bagless vacuum cleaner.  The machine is just barely over the 90 warranty offered by the store but still within the 1 year warranty offered by Bissell.  The wheel just fell off when I was vacuuming.  It didn't bump anything, it just fell off.  I put it back on and continued vacuuming but it fell off again.  Upon closer inspection, the two of the plastic tabs that hold the wheel on the wheel hub had broke off and this was with normal usage.  I called Bissell for a replacement wheel but they said I had to go through one of their service outlets.  The one closest to me is a 40 minute drive.  I called them and they said it would be a 4 to 6 week wait for the part.  Let's see, I have all hard wood flooring and severe allergies (aka daily vacuuming) yet I am supposed to wait 4 to 6 weeks?  In addition, I was supposed to drive 40 minutes each way twice?  Does Bissell realize just how much gas is now a days?  I called Bissell back to let them know it would be 4 to 6 weeks before my vacuum would be repaired.  Well, I might as well have been talking to a brick wall.  Here's the thing, if Bissell actually cared about their customers they would have just sent me a replacement wheel.  I would even had paid for a replacement wheel but instead they chose to not apply the finer art of keeping a customer satisfied.  Bissell has lost a loyal customer, plain and simple! 

My husband came up with a temporary repair for the Opticlean then last night brought home a new central vacuum.  It is a Hoover straight-air central vacuum system with attachments.  There are two head attachments but not a power head as this system is designed for hard floor surfaces.  Since we have no carpeting in the house, this central vacuum system is ideal for us and it saved $100 by not needed the power head.  We had central vac in our third house and it was a Hoover.  It was really quite delightful so I'm looking forward to going back to using central vac here.  I won't get rid of the Opticlean unit as that will be good for vacuuming out the vehicles.  I'll report back on the installation of the central vac and how I like it once the unit is installed.

Garden Gnome
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