A vacuum cleaner salesman tried to work the Dingbat. Hilarity ensued!

[Robb]

My girlfriend let the kid in. :eyes:

Actually, it was kind of entertaining. I wouldn't say no to a great vacuum cleaner at a good price, so hell, I thought let's see the spiel.

Oh. My. Goodness. :D

It was everything I imagined it to be, complete with the snappy patter ("Would you want to leave all this dust in the house for your children to breathe?" "What children?") and the pouring of baking soda on the carpet. He vacuumed it up with my vacuum, then presto, look at all the soda still left behind when the NEW vacuum goes over the very same spot!!

I was amazed. I was impressed. Then he got out a pad and started scribbling a price; I had flashbacks to my worst car-buying experience.

$1,800 dollars. :wow:

No, thank you.

So he got the pad back out and scribbled a payment plan ("No, thanks.") then dropped a bunch of money off ("No, thank you.") then offered me $200 to trade in my old vacuum ("No, thanks.") and finally got down to a whopping $1,200.

No way. I tell him first of all, I never buy anything that costs more than $100 without doing a lot of research first. I point to the $400 TV I spent (literally) nine months shopping for.

He says "Well, these are only sold at in-home demonstrations."

Riiiiiiight.

Then he gets on the cell phone "to his boss." Comes down to $999. :D

No, thanks.

Two hours later, he's gone, my girlfriend is apologizing for ever letting him in, and I'm finding the exact model vacuum on eBay for $499, shipped.

All in all, not a terrible experience, but a funny one. Plus he left a bunch of his demo filters behind by mistake; I shall cut them up to make new filters for the Roomba (which I decided not to tell him about).

Anyone else ever deal with a bona-fide door-to-door vacuum salesman? :D

[democracyindanger]

1. Ah, door-to-door salesmen

That's a rough gig. I feel for 'em.

But I never let 'em in.

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. I like mine with sheep dip.

Yup, I eat 'em.

Sorry, but their lives just aren't worth living.

[DS1]

3. For 1800 dollars I'd expect them to show and vacuum the house

once a week for a year.

Jaysus!

[HEyHEY]

4. Yeah, don't know if he ever did get that dustbuster pulled outta his ass

[yellowdogintexas]

5. sounds like it had to be either a Kirby or the "Rainbow"

vaccuum cleaner.

Over priced

[Robb]

6. Ding ding ding!

'Twas a Kirby! All-American made! Look at all that metal! :D

[China_cat]

7. Yep. Rainbows are great machines

but I've got better things to do than vacuum.