Sucks to be me

We bought a new vacuum cleaner the other day. Our old Sears Kenmore canister had outlived its usefulness. The wheels never rolled straight, the connector for the "Power Hose" stuck such that you needed a screwdriver to disconnect the recently replaced "Turbo Brush" attachment, and so on.

After a lot of online shopping and a couple of trips to local stores, we decided to get a Miele canister from Bed Bath and Beyond (I always think of Jay from Last Commic Standing when I think of BB&B). After using it the other day during housecleaning, I have to say, I think we made the right choice. It's leaps and bounds better than the Kenmore was. The parquet floor attachment is great on the hardwood floors (that was extra), the spinny upholstery brush is great (and gentle) on the furniture.

My favorite part is the vent (air gets sucked in through the hose, it needs to be vented out somewhere, right?). On the Kenmore, the vent was out the back. That was always annoying - if the vacuum happened to be facing the wrong way, it would just blow the dust around. The Miele people figured that out and have it vent out the top - no more blowing the stuff I haven't gotten to sucking around.

Bed Bath and Beyond though - arg. We decided to get this particular vacuum from them because we had a 20% off coupon (they send coupons weekly). What we didn't realize was that the coupon, in its fine print, excludes nearly every major (read "expensive") manufacturer. We walked up to the register with what would soon be our new vacuum, handed it and the coupon to the cashier and were told "oh, you can't use this coupon on this vacuum - Miele is excluded" and she showed us, in the teeny tiny print - they're excluded - bastards.

But we got it anyway - I think that's what they expect to happen - get people excited to buy something and then when they can't back down, hit them with the bad news. And it worked, but only this time - we won't be shopping there anytime soon.