A LONG thought on Miele Vacuum Cleaners...
After selling and repairing the Miele line of vacuum cleaners over the past 10 years or so, I can see some of the comments here being very insightful, needed, helpful and sane, and others just being plain blather and over dramatized from several standpoints.
First off I would like to say that many of these issues that y'all have brought up would have been properly circumvented had you had a salesperson with half a brain. Many salespeople probably more that I would like to truly find out are crappy,idiotic, useless and uninformed in all sales outlets for all things marked salable, NOT just in vacuum cleaner sales.
They sell on agenda only, or do it to pay the bills, or whatever. They aren't the cognoscenti like most of us feel we are...LOL. These person do not do their customers any service during or after the sale. Or like Brandon's visit, where he was dealing with primarily someone who deals with another type of product. It saddens me that this person wasn't cross trained properly to handle both the sewing and vac parts of the business. Because in many cases they are...you just had a misinformed salesperson who was trying his hand at vac sales.
That said,if you felt like you were not getting the full banana, or being sold less than what you needed you should have asked around to see if someone who did have a light on up in their coo coo clock on that may have know a thing or two about vacuum cleaners, especially Mieles, their options and the "Proper" things that you would need it to have to fully satisfy your needs. .
However, coming away from a bad sales experience is NEVER the fault of the manufacturer, or the products therein. It's the fault of the dealer and his or her salespeople. We just like to blame those at the top..It's cool, we as a society have done it for centuries.
Miele vacuums are to me a tad on the overpriced side, but then there are hundreds of thousands of people who spend twice as much of Mieles top model on the common door to door machines that may or may not do just as good a job for their prospective purchasers.
A good salesperson would have asked you a host of different questions in light of finding out what machine would have properly suited your needs. You would then have had the option to purchase that model or models and you would have been a far happier camper than you are now. Aggressive salespeople irritate me, and I am not one of them. I've had people come back months later so they could save more to buy the proper vacuum cleaner I've showed them, Miele or not.
As to Mieles quality, I wont even argue with a one of you. If I could , or had the time to do a yearly study of what gets repaired most, I can tell you that Miele is probably the least repaired machine that we see come in followed by Kirby and Filter Queen. The lower priced brands get the lions share of that light, names unimportant. We as collectors and vacuum guys know who they are. That said, no product Miele or otherwise can claim complete clairvoyancy in quality and lifespan. They do make it longer than others , and if that weren't the case, you would not see as many of them as you do out there in the field.
Also, in 8 times out of 10 when it comes to Miele, at least up here in my market, many things that break are simply caused by human error. Plain and simple. Getting too excited, using improperly, storing improperly, and finally picking up improper things usually cause a Miele to go down. Sam said it best..it doesn't matter if it's a $39.99 blue light special or a $3,000 Silver King (which I personally think is ludicrous) If ti's used improperly or handled so by its owner(s). That your fault not the fault of the machine.
Yes, years back Miele did had some issues with the cord winders on the old 500 series machines. Why do you think they test them all now. And for those who don't think they do..you're dead wrong. I've seen MANY power point demonstrations where they take us DIRECT to the factory floor in Germany via the great internet and real time display and show us the machine that does this very operation of testing ALL cord reels before they enter a unit. It's not just an R&D experiment. You're not there, and clearly have not seen these films that I would find it hard to believe they just FAKE for old times sake, or they would waste their time to lie to hundreds of thousands of salespeople.
Even Maytag , who used to hang it's whole sales angle on how long their machines lasted even said in their advertising "We can't say that ALL Maytags will equal that record", "but lasting quality is what we TRY to build into every Maytag" or like wording. Miele is the same way. Yeah they had a bad run a while back of cordwinders...so what. Show me any lesser brand who did or do NOT have the same issues. 9 out of 10 Kenmores I have brought into me have broken Cord Winders, followed by Hoover then Eureka. Inmy book only the OLD Electroluxes had the best cordwinders, but their long gone, and the new stuff ain't any better than most, mainly becasue it's a Eureka.
The price of their powernozzles if not included in the purchase price of the machine is quite high. That is why it's up to the salesperson to attempt to get you to purchase one WHILE your in the store. If he or she does her sales demo right you'll most likely go home with one. If you have to ( and many of you don't) or you wouldn't even be looking at a Miele anyway..buy on price tho, and skimp, your decision is your own peril. I sold a Pisces to a lady who refused to spend one more dime for her vacuum. I warned her that with her needs she may not be haoppy with the full performance of her unit. I showed her our Simplicity Canisters, as well as a Royal Procison 3050 with Pwoernozzle which wer cheaper in some forms and in others not, but SHE wanted a Miele becsue her sister had one and she liked it.
Guess what. she was back in a two days, and asked to purchase the next model up which was the Callisto, so she coul dhave the electric power brush. I helped her out, and because of that, she has recommended it to several friends who have bought that same model or higher from me. If you are given both the pros and the cons to each model, do your homework and look up things, and ask around...And even goto a different store..whatever you choose take home is no longer the fault of the machines, the company or the salespeople. It's your choice that you made...plain and simple.
Unless you have a gun held to your head, or what have you, no one EVER forces you to do anything. If again you feel like your not getting what you want, or your being pushed into something to buy...walk away. Again if YOU do the choice fully without any other notions being presented, than it's your fault for choosing the wrong thing, or being cheap or whatever.
Finally wattage is so unimportant as is amps. Mieles airflow is 140 Cu.ft. of air a minute. Only a central vac has higher suction. However even suction isn't all that important. It's a combination of proper agitation, suction and filtration that make a good rug cleaner/ vacuum cleaner. A decently trained salesperson knows this.
I never resort to BTW even when I'm running out of balls to pitch the stepping on the machine, or holding it by the cord those demonstrations show that your more into they hype than the features that will be most beneficial to the customer . I do however show them the hose trick. Hoses in replacement cost are VERY expensive usually. To show the customer that the hose will never kink, or split or what have you is a real asset. It takes away a fear many canister customers have from possibly purchasing the machine.
Again nothing is perfect, mechanical or human and salespeople in some very unfortunate cases don't know their tit from their tat. Neither of these reasons should make someone denounce a company or it's products. But we do that, and sink them all the time... It's kinda sad..
Chad
