Friday, February 27, 2009

It's Mega Maid. She's gone from suck to blow!


50 points to whoever can name that movie.

I've been waiting all week to use that title, by the way.

So, today I had a Rainbow Vacuum demonstration at my house. Have you heard of these? They're wildly expensive floor/air cleaning systems that use water filtration rather than bags or cups.

Don't worry, I won't bore you with a play by play of the demo. I'll just say that they're pretty fabulous. But not $2000 fabulous.

In fact, the only reason I'm even writing about it is because of the price tag and the debate it sparked among my friends. Two of my friends are learning to be Rainbow sales people in order to earn theirs for free. I told them up front I wouldn't buy one, but I'd be happy to have the demo to help them earn theirs. Another of my friends is more like me--of the mindset that $2000 is a ludicrous amount to pay for a floor cleaner, but also agreed to the demo in her home to help them out.

E-mails were exchanged among the four of us, and a heated debate erupted about fiscal responsibility, priorities, and free agency. Honestly, the debate took me by surprise. After all, these are just vacuums we're talking about! The debate was almost as heated as the one we engaged in two weeks ago over homosexuality. A vacuum!

So, I want to open up the discussion to rest of my friendternets (Sorry, Harmony. I'm stealing your word). Would you pay $2000 for a really fabulous cleaning product (because, really, it was fabulous and did every single thing it claims to do)? Or are you more of the opinion that $2000 should be used for things of more importance or benefit to your family? $2000 could buy us 5 plane tickets to Europe or a week at Disney. I'm guessing that 20 years from now, my kids would have more fond memories of a great family trip than of our spectacular vacuum.
Also, would you be willing to refer 20 of your friends and spend upwards of 40 hours going along to the demos in their home to earn one? Would you buy one on credit?

There's no right or wrong. I'm just really interested to read what you have to say. I never imagined the dialogue that could come from a vacuum sales pitch. Who knew?

24 comments:

  1. Spaceballs!
    Not from me always watching it, but from cj.

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  2. Oh, and honestly, i have a hard time spending 40 bucks on a nice towel that claims to be forever soft. So, no, i wouldn't spend that much money on a vacuum, and especially not put it on credit.

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  3. I love me some good floor cleaning products, but $2000 is ridiculous. The ONLY way I can see justifying an expense like that is if you had some medical issues -- asthma/allergies/other respiratory issues -- that required INSANELY clean carpet.

    In which case I would probably not have carpet in my house to begin with.

    I think a lot of people have reached a point where they have to have the absolute best of everything, and "good enough" doesn't exist anymore. In some cases it may not be a big deal financially (say for instance that your husband WILL NOT eat $3 ice cream -- only the ultra premium $6 ice cream). In that case we're talking about $3 difference, and let's be honest, sometimes it's fun to splurge.

    But when you are talking about spending 5 to 10 times the "normal" value for an item, I think you need to carefully examine how much is enough and how much is excessive.

    Especially when it's going on credit.

    P.S. I also knew it was Spaceballs:)

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  4. And no, I would never ask my friends to sit through a demo for something I wanted but couldn't (or shouldn't) afford.

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  5. I knew it was Spaceballs too. I feel so cool. No I wouldn't buy it unless I have a lot of disposable income. And I do mean A LOT.

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  6. Back in the early 70's a family from Freeport, Maine sued the Rainbow Vacuum company. Their little boy was about 4 years old at the time. He climbed on the canister to ride while his mother was vacuuming. There was a cover that lifted up to put the water in. It flipped up and sucked his penis into the motor, obviously doing horrible damage. He was only wearing underware at the time so there was nothing to protect him. He had many surgeries but reconstructive surgery in those days just wasn't what it is today. Please don't buy one!! I saw what it did to him, they shouldn't even be in business.

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  7. No worries, I'm not buying one. HOWEVER, I don't think Rainbow should be punished because some mother was dumb enough to let her kid ride on the vacuum (not because it's dangerous, but because she probably spent as much on the vacuum as she did her car!). They're designed differently now anyway. The only way to get one's penis stuck would be to deliberately put it there.

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  8. SPACEBALLS!

    (yeah, I KNOW someone already wrote that on here--but I knew it!)

    I am so onboard with the overpriced vacumn cleaner (I guess I'm alone on this one) We have a Kirby, which was $1200 and does carpet shampooing too.

    My husband was the one who got sucked into it (get it? Sucked into it? I've got a million of them) by some door-to-door woman, and I made SO MUCH FUN OF HIM.

    But now? Best. thing. ever. We were without it for three months when we first moved to Hawaii and I hated it.

    Short story: Just buy a Kirby. They are awesome and cost $600 dollars less. And I just googled it and no one got a penis stuck in one (by the way, that's a horrifying story)

    No one google "penis kirby". Ever.

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  9. I just left the longest comment EVA!!!

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  10. So here's what I figure. I vacuum with my regular sized vacuum about, oh, once a month? I'm not a vacuumer. I usually use my $20 stick vacuum. The big one we got for $99 when we got married. So until the day that I start to vacuum every single stitch of carpet, plus the bed and pillows and everything else the Rainbow claims to do every single day, there is no point in spending that kind of money on any cleaning object. Think of all the food storage on could buy with that much money! When the power is out and your family is hungry, you'll be wishing you hadn't bought that silly worthless vacuum. :)

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  11. I'm hoping to inherit my grandma's rainbow. I would not spend $2000 on it. But I'd let them come to my house, 'cause don't they clean a room for you? I'm all about that. I'd be the one stringing the guy along..."I'm just not sure, maybe you could clean my room, too, I'm on the fence." And then I'd have no problem telling 'em to get the heck out. XD

    But did you see the Everybody Love Raymond ep with the Rainbow? I never watched that show, but I caught it in the middle of the night on TBS and Ray got suckered into buying it. His wife was all mad, until she saw what it could do, then she took it to her MILs house and wanted to show her all the dirt in the water after vacuuming her house...but the MIL had no dirt. It was pretty hilarious.

    And your movie clue would be harder without the photo. :D

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  12. Oh, they totally clean things for you! My only moment of weakness where I nearly crumbled was when the guy (who was very nice and not pushy at all, by the way), cleaned a stubborn traffic stain out of doorway of my bedroom. It had been there since we moved in, and I had gone over it with my bissell steamer 3-4 times with hardly any change (and my bissell is actually very good). The Rainbow shampooer had it looking like new carpet in about 30 seconds. I'm hard to impress, but I was pretty darn impressed by that. And? The carpet was completely dry 20 minutes later.

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  13. I've used one of these before and loved it. HOWEVER, the downside is figuring out what to do with all that gunky, dirty water. Sure, you could pour it down your toilet, but if your house is like mine, you've not only got dirty water but globs of dust and dirt. Now, if you've got a nice industrial toilet that is sure to flush the junk, okay. But my toilets will clog if I put more than a couple of pieces of toilet paper in them (damn water saving pieces of ****). Another option is dumping the water outside, but then you've got nice globs of dirt and dust outside, and who wants to have to trudge through the snow and freezing temps just to empty this thing?

    So, no, I wouldn't buy one. I love the idea and I loved how clean my floor was after I used one, but it's not worth the aggravation. (Or the money)

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  14. We're on the "not going to pay that much money for a cleaner" side of the fence in this debate. We were referred by friends for a demo to help them earn their free air cleaner along with the vacuum. This is the first point of contention with this vacuum - I hate selling out our friends just to benefit us (and I resent being sold old - so don't even think about giving our names for Living Scriptures, Rainbow Vacuums, Amway, etc). Second point - dumping the nasty water, seriously where do you put that much junky water? Third point - After Rainbow left our house, we vacuumed again and still got dirt out of the floor so they're aren't the end all vacuum of the universe (oh and funny tip - clean your house before they come over and they panic when they don't see any really good spots for cleaning, that's what we did and the lady was super nervous, we just didn't want her to have any extra ammo as selling points). Fourth point - 2000 dollars, need I say more!? Fifth point - they use guilt to make you buy...you're helping your friends, your house and health will be better, if you don't buy I have to repack the whole thing, etc. Don't ever try to guilt trip me because I just get mad and I'll do everything in my power to prove you wrong. Believe me, this does not equal purchasing your item.

    So that pretty much sums it up. Sure the Rainbow vacuum is a good cleaner, but for 2000 dollars it better do the cleaning without my input at all.

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  15. Adam has a fail proof test for Vacuum-cleaner salespeople. Can my kid carry it up the stairs? He had poor little Nona trying to carry a Kirby up the stairs. It was pretty funny. The Kirby guy silently just walked out the door. teehee

    Dude, I try not to vacuum if I can help it. The kids have got to be able to do the work. But we did get an expensive vacuum anyway...it only weighs 8lbs. It's awesome! Yes...it can lift a bowling ball. Do you know the one?

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  16. I do love Rainbow!!!
    One alternative would be to hire a cleaning crew that uses Rainbow... your entire house could get cleaned and smell Rainbow great about 25 times for the price of one Rainbow.

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  17. I once had the Kirby type people stop by my house. They said "Would you like a free carpet cleaning".

    I was all "hell yeh!".

    Then, he starts vacuuming little spots and taking the disk out to show me where I have fuzz balls. So, ten minutes into it, I have like 5000 little fuzz ball disks all over my floor, when I ask "Are you trying to *sell* me this vacuum?"

    "Um, duh" was the reply.
    "How much is it?"
    "Oh, only $2000" he says
    "We are a one income family, so I don't have that kind of money...you need to leave"

    Guess what? He doesn't leave. He just keeps vacuuming and setting out disks...and I KNOW I'm going to be the person who has to clean up his stupid mess.

    FINALLY, his buddy comes to pick him up, and I tell him "I don't work, so I don't have that kind of money"
    He looks dead at me "Well, he DOES work...and THIS is his job".
    Yeh, good selling point a-hole.

    Annnnd....
    Even if I had that kind of money, I wouldn't spend that on a vacuum. I felt guilty enough buying my $400 Dyson. (It works sooo well...too well in fact. It keeps literally pulling up my carpet. My brand new carpet.)

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  18. Spaceballs!!! I love that movie!! As for the vacuume....buy a Kennmore canister for $130 and it will do as good a job,if not better, as an electrolux or a Kirby. I clean houses for a living and I have used many different types of vacs (not the Rianbow) but I am willing to bet that it's not worth $2000. NO VACUUME IS WORTH $2000.

    PS: we bought a Wii last night and it's by far the BEST THING EVER!! =] love ya Titty =]

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  19. You know there are now TWO ads on your page for Rainbow Vacuums. And you didn't want to promote them. :)

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  20. hahahaha
    Good looking out Ariella-

    Rainbow vacuum

    Rainbow vacuum

    more ads more ads more ads

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  21. A. If you love me you will never ever try to sell me anything.
    B. Repeat A to yourself every day.
    C. This prohibition includes makeup, soap, appliances and vitamins. ESPECIALLY vitamins.

    I had the kirby folks come by one evening. The chick attempting to sell us the vacuum was a rookie. Also, mental. She ended up vomiting all over our front walk because she didn't want to use out bathroom. Then she spent 30 minutes on our phone trying to get her boss to come get her because she wasn't allowed to drive. More vomiting. No, she said she wasn't sick, just nervous. The whole time my family is just saving all this up for later tales.

    Finally the boss came to get the vomiting psycho betty and offered to clean our front walk. We asked them to just please leave.

    Oh, Harmony, my rule of thumb is to assume that if I put the name of an organ located in the nonozone into google I will be sent to pr0nland. Try "unusual accidents kirby" instead. I once searched for "american girl" looking for the dolls. Oh. My. Lanta!

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  22. Once I had a Rainbow- I got it when BlueCatfish was little and had asthma. It was great- did everything that it said it would ( although for the price it should have done it by itself) but the dispose of the water thing was a PITA. Totally. The thing lasted forever though and made it through a zillion moves.

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Be nice or I'll punch you in the taco.

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