Last night, I was relaxing in my living room watching a not-so-cool Arnold Schwarzenegger movie when my door bell rang. Standing on my porch was my next door neighbor tying to explain that a man was in her home vacuuming her mattress.
Ok, you have my attention. I'm listening.
It seems that a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman has talked himself in to her home and, at the moment, was demonstrating for her husband the magical powers of said super sucker. Like her husband, I too was impressed with the cleaning ability of this space-aged vacuum cleaner.
It made my $250 Hoover look like a broom. Then the other shoe dropped.
My neighbor could have the machine for $1,700. If that was too high, no problem. They had a payment plan that sported a 24-percent interest rate.
In his pitch, the salesman explained that the vacuum was a need, not a want. I know that I didn't agree with that assumption. My guess is that the salesman understands that people are getting their tax rebate checks and was looking to clean up.
Are you spending you're stimulus cash on stuff you want or need?
I think my vacuum is broken, but there is no way, stimulus rebate or no stimulus rebate, I would spend that much money on a vacuum. Even if it picked up every ounce of cat hair in my apartment.
I had one of those salespeople in my house before. Twice, actually. Their favorite thing to do is the mattress test because it hits closest to home, seeing all that crap get sucked out of your bed where you sleep. Nasty, but not worth that much $$$$$$$$.
I am the neighbor Sean is referring to. I must tell you the Kirby vacuum was amazing. If it were cheaper I would have bought it, but $1700.00 is a little steep for a vacuum cleaner. The salesman did a great job showing the vacuum off, however it took nearly 3 hours of my free time and a lot of pressure from his partner who would leave and come back every 30 minutes or so. Very strange experience, but if you have an expendible $1700.00, you would be very happy with this vacuum cleaner. The real kicker was that the salesman took my Dirt Devil and put it outside!!