So, like, are we in the 21st century yet?
There is no way to make this long story short with out missing something important. I’m sorry about that.
Just last week, our cheapo vacuum died. We knew that it was cheap when bought it, but we thought it was going to last more than a year. Well, it did — but not by much. We learned our lesson — no more cheap vacuums.
But we still didn’t want to spend a lot of money. On Saturday, Leah and I stopped into Sears and looked at vacuums (as best as you could with a not-quite-two year old who wants to watch the Pooh shaped TV instead). They had a nice Kenmore vacuum on sale — for $270. More than we wanted to spend.
I told Gina about it on the phone (she was on a break at work) and said, “How does it score on Consumer Reports?” Good idea! Paid my money, made an account, and first looked at their Top Recommendations. The vacuum I just looked at was at the top of their list. So, everything is good. Except the price.
Gina once again had a good suggestion: “Why not try eBay?” Why not? I looked an it wasn’t there, but previous model was. Another look on Consumer Reports had this one as a Recommended when it came out. The features and everything was the same, so things were looking good.
We lost the first one we bid on, but we got the second one — for $80, when you count shipping. Yep, much cheaper. It came yesterday via UPS and everything was fine.
So far, so good. We did things the 21st century way — researched and purchased on the Web direct from the seller, I got a better price and he made more money. Everyone wins.
Well, except someone. Keep reading.
This vacuum has features we want to understand and use — because we want to use it for more than a year. Gina and I both decided that we needed a manual. I figured, like most things, the manual would be available online. That’s where this story get confusing.
I went to Sears’ parts webpage and put in the model number. I saw they had a manual — for $9. Shipped to you. What?!?! Printing and shipping a manual in this day in age? I can order the manual from a website, but can’t get it?!?! Don’t they realize that it would cost them more to print it than to do anything else?
Maybe I’m asking too much — for a free, downloadable manual for a product I bought used from someone else. But still — I think it just makes sense.