Rainbow And Delphin Vacuum Cleaners

Has anyone bought either of these brands of vacuum cleaners for SGD3,000+ and up?

Basically what they do is they either get your contact via a referral from a friend, or they give you a free pot(or something) at a household fair. They then lug their huge-ass water-filtration based vacuum cleaners to your home and tells you it's a one-off free cleaning service.

Once they enter your home, the selling begins. From praising you, giving you irresistible offers, spouting all the healthy living spiel, to very amazing demonstrations sucking up your bed and sofas to leave you almost embarrassed that they are so dirty.

Finally they refuse to leave, throwing everything at you from interest-free instalment plans, free gifts, cheaper rates if you gave her a few names of friends who could use the product, leaving at least a small initial deposit, using their cleaning service. Anything just for you to part with your money.

I did abit of searching for both products online and was amazed by the amount of negative news, comments, reviews available.

Basically, if a product were this good, it would never receive so much negative publicity bordering on people calling them scams and con jobs. Now I won't say that they are, but I believe there are a few things that you readers should know so that you know what to expect when you next receive such an invite for free cleaning service etc.

Point 1. The vacuum cleaner seems quite good. There are not many water-based filtration vacuum cleaners around and it is true that water does contain dirt and mites better than your normal filter bag. The machine itself is as powerful as it gets too. A check on US websites actually gives the vacuum cleaners a four out of five star rating on average.

Point 2. The most common complaints I can find on the use of the vacuum cleaners are that firstly, they are too bulky. At 30lbs that's like 15kg of rock to lug around. Sucks if you have stairs in your house. Secondly, the assembly and cleaning process is extremely tedious. Unlike conventional cleaners where you just turn off the machine and store it, this one you have to assemble, and after cleaning you have to clean out the filter bowl, grimy dust filled water and all. Thirdly, they're loud. But then that's because they have a huge motor to suck right? Lastly, they have no retractable wires, so you have to wrap the wiring around the machine and basic storage looks ugly.

Point 3. The price factor. The Rainbow was offered to us for SGD 3.4K. NOT KIDDING. This hulk of a machine actually costs about USD 300 to assemble according to most online opinion. Yet the magic of removing dust mites from your bed does make people part with their money rather easily. Now I see little marketing for this product, so most of the extra profits should be used to pay the salesmen. Thats a very high profit margin. It explains their pushiness to sell.

Point 4. You have to understand how this company works. From what I've read, they could be abit like pyramid selling, Get-rich-quick selling, or MLM even. The salespeople themselves are lured with high income for little work adverts and the focus of their training is direct sales techniques. The salespeople apparently are not paid a salary and are paid on a tiered basis based on how many machines they sell. Apparently they can earn up to 1K per machine? Hence the pushy sales.

Point 5. Do more research online. Honestly, I only did it because I found it funny that I've never heard of these two brands prior and yet they dared to sell for such obscene prices. The online negativity and tsunami of bad experiences is one thing you might want to try not to get sucked into if you want an unbiased view. Just try to read the genuine experiences, some are really quite satisfied while others are downright terrible like getting cheated of even more money by their salesperson! Read and decide yourself.

Point 6. Aftersales support. The biggest complaint from owners of the machines, is after sales support. Most say they cannot locate who to be responsible when machines breakdown, when wanting to service under warranty or simple when trying to get in touch with the company. And most times the salespeople would just run you through an endless loop of people transferring you in circles. Next biggest complaint is high cost of servicing if not covered under warranty and sales of spare parts.

All in, do your check and balance before committing to buying the product even if you think it will be worth every cent of your thousands of dollars. It is not right to be aggressively pressured into buying after only one demo. If all else fails, there is always the Small Claims Tribunal. So far, several cases against Delphin have been won there.