65 Hoover repair shops closing


Forum Topics & Rules Manuals & Literature	New users Click-here to sign-up

Thread Number: 5002
65 Hoover repair shops closing

[Down to Last]

Post# 55728 12/5/2008 at 19:17 (5,613 days old) by williamr1248 (USA)
Checkrate/Likes When I got home today I had a message on my phone to call about a part I had ordered on Monday. The tech told me they would not be able to fill the order as they had just been notified that they were being closed on December 10. I was referred back to general Hoover website number. When I finally got a real person she confirmed they are closing 65 Hoover Repair facilities as of December 10. Makes me wonder how long we will be able to get parts for the "real" Hoover products. You hate to see all those employees lose their jobs just before Christmas.The website has not been updated so I was first referred right back to the number of the repair facility that is closing.

Post# 55732 , Reply# 1 12/5/2008 at 21:19 (5,612 days old) by hoovercelebrity (Germany)
Checkrate/Likes *Yep...* It is so. I had a message from my former boss the other day; they got the news on Tuesday. All of the Hoover Factory Service centers will be gone by 12/31. :-(

Post# 55735 , Reply# 2 12/5/2008 at 21:52 (5,612 days old) by ohio_tuec ()
Checkrate/Likes *R.I.P. Hoover* Really a shame. Just one more painful reminder that Hoover "as we knew it." is gone. We knew TTI would be totally useless. We'll just have to make do with the parts still available through other suppliers to help the faithful soldiers trudge on.

Post# 55737 , Reply# 3 12/5/2008 at 22:05 (5,612 days old) by kirbyvertibles (Independence, KS)
Checkrate/Likes I don't even offer Hoover repair anymore because it is like pulling teeth trying to get any parts. I hate TTI

Post# 55739 , Reply# 4 12/5/2008 at 23:04 (5,612 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640)
Checkrate/Likes *Is TTI really THAT dumb?* do they think we're all going to just "chuck" all this stuff and "proudly" run for the Chinese plastic stuff? Why did they pay ALL that money? just for a red circle???

Post# 55748 , Reply# 5 12/6/2008 at 05:51 (5,612 days old) by williamr1248 (USA)
Checkrate/Likes *65 Hoover repair shops closing* Don't you think in part it is because the vacuum (much like tv's and other appliances) have become disposable and customers do not think in terms of repair? We have to drive almost 35 miles to another town to find anyone that can repair my Sunbeam toaster. This guy has a little shop and is retired and just does it I am sure to keep busy. I don't know of anyplace in Indianapolis that does repair of small appliances. I am almost afraid to use my new Hoovers except for the Constellation. The plastic is so thin that I don't want to damage parts. I will say except for the turbo nozzle my new Constellations are pretty tough little machines. I have heard the new company blamed and I have heard Maytag blamed but to me in reality they have been puting out some very poor low quality vacuum for a long time. They were removing the famous beater bars and were producing plastic chaisis convertibles years ago. I just feel very bad for the people of Canton and others who dedicatd their lives to the company and now do not have jobs.If you ask a young person today what top of the line vacuum would be the answer is Dyson,Miele and just maybe they have heard of the Kirby. If a Hoover 63 with tools was over $15.00 in the early 1950's think of how much it would have to retail for in today's market. It sure would be more than $129.00 whichiis what i paid for the 100th Anniversary Windtunnel from Target(although I have to admit I LOVE the clor of blue).

Post# 55749 , Reply# 6 12/6/2008 at 05:55 (5,612 days old) by williamr1248 (USA)
Checkrate/Likes *65 repair Hoover repair shops closing* I was typing too fast in my post. I was thinking $115.00 not $15.00. Now that would have been a real bargin!

Post# 55763 , Reply# 7 12/6/2008 at 10:34 (5,612 days old) by rugmaster37 ()
Checkrate/Likes *I just spoke....with my old friend Dallas.....* He currently is the manager for the Detroit Branch of the Hoover Company. I called him this morning, and wanted to hear the news myself. It's true, and he's really torn up over it. He was the one who hired me into our old (defunct)Hoover Sales/Service Center in Howell Michigan. He did verify that they are closing, and that it would be all over as stated by December 31st. He just got the news last week via- private e-mail from Glenwillow Ohio. They didn't even have to goddamned decency to send someone. They broke up his immediate future for him online...How romantic. IMHO opinion, Hoover got their illness defined for them along time ago, and it had nothing to do with when they discontinued the beater bars, the Convertibles or even the Celebrity canisters. Hoover became quite ill about the time that they were bought out, or sold, or sold out to Chicago Pacific. That illness spread when they no longer were allowed to make their own corporate choices. Chicago Pacific I believe allowed Hoover to make many of it's choices, but clearly did not run with a free hand as they may have done in the past. (As a sidenote)- It's been well known that beaterbars lost their true effectiveness as carpet styles changed thruought the seventies and eighties. Most carpets were too thick to have the "Triple Action Agitation" work as well as it's creators intended, and on low nap floors, which also were popular during those periods, the beaterbars knocked the bejeesus out of them causing unraveling , and knocking loose the gluedown carpets by vibrating loose the glue backing. Triple action diddn't die because of company want, it was their sales motto for decades, it just fell by the wayside in Hoovers rush to compete with their peers, and a change in styles. I will agree that the company did help to put themselves into a bind, by putting out some pretty bad stuff before Maytag even blew into town. They were putting out the crap back when Chicago Pacific owned them. Hoover was always trying to be "everybodies something", making seventy two different models of cleaners, for whatever reason. They kept chepaening their stuff along the way, to satisfy investors, stockholders, and their own board of directors. Maximum return on minimum investment. The disease started to spead.. The company directors, planners and product people KNEW that it could (like the auto industry) glide for years on it's sterling reputation, but never did so, up until people above them started calling the shots. It resisted the trend for years, while we consumer brats demanded cheaper items. Thier lords heard that cry, got scared and pandered to our wants. And who helped put those terrible measures or quality and usefulness??? The original sellouts. It' pointless to go into names, but many of them started this trend before Hoover did. Once Hoover had other people "help" control the show, they began to put out cheaper stuff, and sold us that "inexpensive item that we had to have. And continued doing so from the Hoover Elite forward. Hoovers vacuums were never the same after 1985. I use that as the start year for Hoover beginning to cheapen everything in an effort to save money (see after being purchased by Chicago Pacific, 1984). Fast forward to when Maytag purchased them. Maytag Company, with their smugness, coming in with their lean sigma and all that other crap, just gutted and ruined the company forever. By the time I began to work for Hoover those years of trading on the great name were starting to show. And Hoover was very weak and trying to stay above water. But the company itself by that time was in no position to reverse course. And really had no one at the helm to try and do it, and the strenght wasn't there; a sad though but one that seems rather true. Those Hoover WindTunnel Self Propelled models had an ENORMOUS repair rate, from busted self-propelled mechanicals, to broken brushrollers, to melted bearing endcaps to anme a few things. This all leading up to their "class action' repair of the switches in Hoover WT's that melted, caught on fire, or simply shocked their owners. But wait, Then they introduced the second wave of garbage which was the Hoover Dual V WindTunnel models that literally rang louder and louder the death knell for what was horrid quality from Hoover. These machines.....I cannot BEGIN to list all the stuff that went wrong with these. But suffice to say to repa SOME of their investment back, they reconstituted it into the Hoover Saavy, which was no better, and broke just as easily as the blunder Hoover was trying to get away from. Then they moved onto their SteamVac line giving it a tank so cheap, that it cracked and leaked all over within a few uses, turbine meachinism's that siezed when moisture got in. Yes...there were a few bright spots duirng those years, but it was not enough to stop the crushing weight of new product failures that drove Hoovers once reputation six feet under... But I digress... The Hoover DIVISION died effective when Maytag sent in the first wave to do as it saw best for the company. Part of that destructive wave o' Maytag, helped them to decide to close several company owned stores. Mine closed the same day as these final throes of shutdowns December 31st, 2003. This was in their first wave of duping the divisions of a company that by that time was almost 100 years old. Maytag did what Chicago Pacific never did, and Hoover would never have dreamed of doing in it's heyday.....They gutted budgets everywhere, personell at the main plant in N.Canton, and then they gutted thier first stores therafter. It was all a slow systematic shutdown. That to me seemed more painful than anything. The company sent my district manager, and a traveling saleman (who went from store to store as a liasion between you and the company) to shut me down. Just a few weeks before the news hit from on high, they were up at my store ( the two who wer sent to close my store) claiming grand prospects for my store, and a bright sunny future, and even a fancy high price dinner between myself and those tow...where both of them got plotzed, and "I" had to drive them to their hotel. That should have been a sign. Well we can see now a scant five years later what kind of sunny future everyone got. I was just fortunate enough to get into the private sector again before the bottom fell out on jobs here in the last few months. BUT am I really immune?? A sad tale to tell, but one that has been watched by me from the sidelines from around 1987 or so, when I really began to follow the industry, and mostly Hoover actions both past and present...Funny cause now their little left to record or tell.... Chad

Post# 55791 , Reply# 8 12/6/2008 at 15:32 (5,612 days old) by williamr1248 (USA)
Checkrate/Likes *65 Hoover repair shops closing* Chad, Thanks for all the information and time frames. I had both another member of the vac club and a carpet store tell me that same thing about the beater bars and it was very true they didn't do a very good job on the carpeting at my new house which has thick sponge pad and thick pile carpet. The same carpet store told me he had seen damage done by some of the new cleaners with too agressive brushs. In a way we are back where we started. The brush needs to only separate the pile and pick up surface little and the airflow is doing the work. Everything old is new again!

Post# 55813 , Reply# 9 12/6/2008 at 20:42 (5,612 days old) by methodistbill ()
Checkrate/Likes I vaguely recall hearing that the company now making Hoover is now making Kenmore vacs as well. I once had a Kenmore canister that was pretty good for a plastic vac. I think they were made by Panasonic then.

Post# 55831 , Reply# 10 12/7/2008 at 05:51 (5,611 days old) by williamr1248 (USA)
Checkrate/Likes *65 Hover repair shops closing* One nice thing is that the collectors have wonderful examples of the older Hoover procducts and enjoy using them. I am grateful I got the 100th Anniversary Windtunnel,Convertible and canister. I also love the Connie's. It strange that they didn't make a 100th Anniversary Constellation. I agree with Chad's commens. Of all the Anniversary machines the one I like the least and has the poorest construction is the Convertible bag-bagless machine. I will still have fun with my beater-bar Hoovers in the basement on the older carpets because they just don't work on my new carpeting. Thanks again Chad for all the information.

Post# 55839 , Reply# 11 12/7/2008 at 08:42 (5,611 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada)
Checkrate/Likes *get your Stainless Steel Connies NOW!* Now is the time to web order that Stainless Steel Constellation, boys & girls. I just did through my good pipe organ buddy in Syracuse NY, where I will be over the Dec 11-16 weekend. I convinced him he should get one, too. Dave

Post# 55867 , Reply# 12 12/7/2008 at 12:51 (5,611 days old) by williamr1248 (USA)
Checkrate/Likes *65 Hoover repair shops closing* Dave, Where did you get the nice picture of the Connie? The pictures don't do it justice. You will be pleased. It is as quiet as a kitten. As far as the feel of quality it is night and day difference from the Anniverssary machines. I ordered an extra hose but I wonder how long the bags will be available. Let us know what you think when yo get it. Rob

Post# 55873 , Reply# 13 12/7/2008 at 15:44 (5,611 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada)
Checkrate/Likes Not sure where I snagged the picture but it was off some website back when the New Connie debuted and I wanted one so bad and was tucked in my New Connie folder. I know how much I'm going to love this because I have the Pearl White model with the shorter hose. It pulls an impressive +100" without screaming or straining and because of that suction the Turbo floor nozzle doesn't bog down. It IS quiet. At $145 its a steel steal. When it first appeared in Canada it was over $300 at Home Hardware and when you went to get it they never had one in stock. After that all we could get was the white one for $249. But I got mine at a flea market thrift for something like $12 or was it $20 ? I'm missing the hose handle but cobbled something up, of course. I don't know what Hoover that curved tube goes with but it was in my spare parts bin, so... Now I will have the really long hose and the box and everything. :-) No point crying over TTIs spilled spoiled milk, grab these Hoover future classic beauties NIB while you can. Dave

Post# 55875 , Reply# 14 12/7/2008 at 17:43 (5,611 days old) by sbnhvlvr (South Bend, IN)
Checkrate/Likes The curved wand is from a vintage 5-piece power seal converter kit for a Hoover Convertible. It was the first version of the front conversion attachment set from a U4901 5-Piece Tool Set.

Post# 55876 , Reply# 15 12/7/2008 at 18:33 (5,611 days old) by sbnhvlvr (South Bend, IN)
Checkrate/Likes It is very sad to see all of the 65 Factory Stores to close, these were the only place you could all always get those hard to find Hoover Parts, and the parts were usually in stock. I recently got a new nozzle for my steam vac wide path, since I was stupid and picked it with with wet hands and dropped the damn thing and broken the nozzle portion. thanks to the guys at the Hoover Store near Exton , PA I was able to get a new nozzle portion and replace it rather than buy a new Steamvac. Good Bless these folks, We will miss them dearly!!!!! In Our saturday trips on the vacuum cleaner hunt!!

Post# 55906 , Reply# 16 12/8/2008 at 17:29 (5,610 days old) by samotronic ()
Checkrate/Likes Voice message at the Pittsburgh Hoover Service Center gives the hours of operation and then says the store will be closing on December 19th and "thank you for 27 years".

Post# 55916 , Reply# 17 12/8/2008 at 18:11 (5,610 days old) by samotronic ()
Checkrate/Likes *A memory* As soon as I hit submit on the above message, I had a memory from the late 60s of going with my Grandmother, on a bus, taking her prized Model 65 to the Pittsburgh Hoover "authorized" service center (in it's previous location in Green Tree) for the yearly "overhaul". She is gone, and the Hoover shops are about to go, but this Model 65 is alive and well in my closet, no doubt due to the regular maintenance that it had, only at an authorized Hoover dealer.

Post# 55921 , Reply# 18 12/8/2008 at 19:23 (5,610 days old) by aeoliandave (Stratford Ontario Canada)
Checkrate/Likes *Confirmed. I got me my Stainless Steel Connie!!!* Syracuse Rich ordered two this morning and they are expected next Monday/Tuesday. I feel so lucky. Dave. returned from Madison Heights MI with old shiny things...on that other thread.

Forum Index:

Other Forums:

Comes to the Rescue!

Woops, Time to Check the Bag!!!
Either you need to change your vacuum bag or you forgot to LOG-IN?
Discuss-O-MAT Log-In

New Members Click Here To Sign Up.

automaticwasher.org home
Discuss-o-Mat Forums
Vintage Brochures, Service and Owners Manuals
Fun Vintage Washer Ephemera
See It Wash!
Video Downloads
Audio Downloads
Picture of the Day
Patent of the Day
Photos of our Collections
The Old Aberdeen Farm
Vintage Service Manuals Vintage washer/dryer/dishwasher to sell?
Technical/service questions?
Looking for Parts?
Website related questions?
Digital Millennium Copyright Act Policy
Our Privacy Policy