I was wondering if vac shops let their potential customers take a vacuum home to try out? I just stopped in at my local vac shop (I was there twice last week trying the Sebo C3 and Ricco 1800 in the store) and he let me take the Riccar home to try out tonight which I think is great. What I found peculiar however was that he didn't even ask me for my name or telephone no. Now that is being either very trustworthy or very stupid on his part (I hope the former). Any comments?

I have a Dyson that I let people take home to try. I ring up the sale (on their credit card) and if they don't want the machine when they bring it back, I refund their money. I've NEVER, in 16 years, had to refund anyone's money. They've always bought whatever I let them take home to try (Used to be the Air-Way, before the big "D"). After all, we have to be very sure of the sale before we would let someone get a new machine dirty.

That is what I thought would happen which is why I was completely surprised when he let me take the Riccar home without even asking my name. I just walked in, said I wanted to try it at home, he handed me the vac and out I walked.

in L.A. not only lets certain customers take machines home to try them out, in some cases they will even deliver the machines to the potential customer's home if they think it's a "hot" prospect.

They sell Royal, Hoover, Dirt Devil, Panasonic, Riccar and Meile [and maybe others, I don't recall offhand] and also industrial machines - carpet cleaning systems, floor buffers etc.

Obviously they are not going to deliver a Dirt Devil to a potential customer, but they will do so with higher-end cleaners.