I agree Chris, but then I'm also agreeing with Adam based on conversations I've had with salespersons.
This is simply down to an experience I had more recently when considering to purchase a new oven and went to my local Currys to see what they had in-store. Of course not all Hoover and Vax products are bad - to collectors and owner - but to the salespersons at Currys, JL and so forth, the reliability issues can always be held up to question dependent on the call backs, or rather the machines coming back to the store when they go wrong.
Whilst I was baulking at the list prices of dual fuel cookers, I had a chat with one of the assistant store managers regarding floorcare brands that have the most trouble or dependent on the type of reason a customer comes back with the machine. The worst brand is Vax. Second to that, Hoover and at odd times even Miele vacuums have been returned.
My own Vax Mach Air had to be returned, or rather it was returned to Vax UK after a fault with the floor head occurred when I bought mine at a John Lewis store. Both John Lewis and Vax suggested spraying WD40 or whatever to loosen the floor head from the mechanism that should allow it to fall, but there was no way I was going to invalidate my 6 year warranty by jiggling about with a machine - after all it does state that you can inherently make the 6 year warranty void by tampering etc. So I had to wash the built in filter and make the machine new again before it could be packaged off and sent back to Vax. When the replacement one arrived, no problems.
So I can sympathise with salespersons greatly who may jump to conclusions that a brand that has had so many call backs or returns, can be justified to say that a brand or certain models from that brand has lousy reliability or design/quality. The Hoover Purepower and Dustmanager models also seem to be quite high up on the list of returns - that old plastic design problem of the handle release pedal for example is a recurring problem and filters not fitting properly.
The Miele vacs that were previously being taken back to Currys and John Lewis were the old S380/S381 cylinder vacs, a couple I've had myself. The problem with those ones are the tool doors on them ping off and the customer who feels that they have spent that much won't touch the machine to repair it. The very fault happened on mine when I bought a burgundy S381. The whole tool lid just pinged off - but I knew how to fix it.
