For several years I had been enticed by direct mail advertising for the Oreck vacuum. One day, feeling extravagant, I decided to spend what seemed like an exorbitant amount of money to purchase it. After all, the advertising said I could try it risk free and return it if I didn't love it. So what did I have to lose? My old Hoover was on its last legs at the time and had to be replaced by something. Why not treat myself to what Oreck touted as an ergonomically designed, feather-light, industrial strength machine?

The vacuum arrived soon after I placed the order, and I immediately unpacked it, ready to put it to the test. I knew the machine was ugly before I purchased it--I'd seen pictures of it often enough. So its looks were not a blind-date shocker, and I was prepared to overlook its visual lack of appeal if it was the workhorse Oreck promised it to be.

I controlled myself, and refrained from plugging it in and giving it a test drive until after I had thoroughly read through all the literature accompanying it. Having committed to spend $369 on this machine, I wanted to make sure I understood everything about it before using it. I began reading, and with the turn of each page of the booklet, an ever-increasing feeling of regret began to fill me. The list of do's and don'ts in the manual was staggering. Even more off-putting was the fact that all of the replacement parts (belts, brushes, rollers, and bags) were available ONLY from Oreck, and they were NOT inexpensive. Since I have four very large, very hairy dogs, I tend to replace vacuum bags several times a month. The Oreck bags are a lot more expensive than other vacuum bags, so I figured it would cost me almost as much per year for the belts and bags as I had paid for the vacuum itself. My enthusiasm was fading, but still, I argued with myself, if it really was such a wonderful machine, maybe the expense was justified.

I removed the vacuum from the box. Just as Oreck claimed, it was very light weight, easy to pick up and carry. Okay, that was good. I plugged it in. It has a very long, good quality cord. I liked that. But I was unable to find anything else to like about the vacuum.

You know how most vacuums have a foot lever to release the handle? Well, Oreck doesn't. You have to stabilize the base while pulling back on the handle to release it. How stupid! Then there's the "ergonomically designed" handle. I know what that's supposed to mean, but I just didn't get it. The handle felt extremely awkward to me. (Maybe I'm not ergonomically compatible.) I pushed the vacuum back and forth a few times over the same stretch of carpet and the dog hair was still there. Industrial strength? I don't think so. Even my dying Hoover was capable of better than that.

Since the Oreck upright has no ability to connect cleaning tools, the company provided me with a free portable compact canister vacuum for this purpose. In all fairness, the portable was great. It was quite light, had a convenient shoulder strap for lugging it around, and sucked up a storm. But what a pain to have to switch back and forth between machines rather than having one machine to do it all.

Test was over. Oreck failed. I called them up to see how I could go about returning the vacuum. This part of the test they passed with flying colors. The customer service representative was polite and responsive. She told me not to worry about having deposited debris in both vacuum bags, just to parcel the vacuums back up, write the tracking number she gave me on the box, and she'd have UPS come take it away.

UPS delivered the Oreck to me on a Monday afternoon. By Tuesday afternoon, it was already making its way back to Oreck. No way was I going to spend that much money on this machine. I went out and replaced my faithful old Hoover with another Hoover. It cost less and it took me an entire year to find anything to dislike about it.


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