Brendan:
As for the price, I paid $500 American for the vacuum; $450 plus $50 shipping. Jeff had said the shipping quote he had gotten from USPS was $104, but he wanted to take only $50 for shipping & squared off the price at $500 even. With our Canadian dollar, $500 American worked out to $512 Canadian. Plus, add the $60 in customs duties I had to pay at the post office, & all told I paid $572 for the vacuum.
The paint does appear to be very durable- I would dare to say his paint job was just as good as the factory paint job! It does appear that it was primed first, then spray painted, & then would have been baked on in an oven. The paint on it is very hard, not soft at all, & no way would it easily be scratched or rubbed off. The wheels are not loose or wobbly at all, they are very solidly attached to the vacuum & work properly. The rear wheels do have some marks on them, but are consistent with normal wear & tear one would expect to find on a 20 year old vacuum, & I highly doubt he could have removed the marks without damaging the plastic.
Suction is not as strong as a Miele, but it is as strong as our Canadian Electroluxes were from the 1980's. The dial for the Automatic Control does work, but since I have not had a full bag yet, don't know if it works properly. I am going to assume it does, & he refurbished it- if you look in the first picture that Jeff sent me, the bag door appears to be taken apart. The bag tube has a little bit of dirt around it as it has been used for about a week now....it was clean when I received the vacuum.
One thing I also forgot to mention, is that in addition to the 2 axles for the back wheels, I also had Jeff throw in a spare set of carbon brushes for the motor as part of the sale, as I was concerned about getting them later should the motor need them, being an American Electrolux. I told him I would pay extra for them, but he didn't charge for them, so I thought that was thoughtful of him.
Overall, I had a very good experience with Jeff Rego. He was extremely courteous & professional in his dealings with me, kept in constant contact by email & phone, supplied pictures while the work on the vacuum was in progress, & went out of his way to please me as a customer. And his price was very reasonable for the work he did, & the condition he put the vacuum in. I will be telling lots of people about him & will be recommending him to others. I give his service TWO THUMBS UP!
Rob
