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Dyson definitely does a great job at marketing, and giving their products a premium price and expectations. I was at the store one day, and saw vacuum cleaners

Dyson definitely does a great job at marketing, and giving their products a premium price and expectations. I was at the store one day, and saw vacuum cleaners. Now, I have no interest in a vacuum at the moment, but they had a Dyson Ball, and I've seen countless videos of it, and had to take a look to see this high-end vacuum. I was disappointed from the first second, it just looked like a bunch of cheap plastic parts, and similar to something I'd find from a yard sale ten years ago. Photo below of my expectation from all the marketing, and a photo someone took of the actual vacuum. http://i.imgur.com/bs1ygfM.jpg http://i.imgur.com/bs1ygfM.jpg I played around with it for a bit, and it just felt cheap, in every way possible. I was expecting the best vacuum in the world, and I was holding something that was entirely different. Now, I don't own one, it might work great for vacuuming, but it had no sense of luxury in person. Another example, is the handheld vacuum, I'd see commercials on television, and then I saw one in the wild at a friends house. Comparison below is using slightly different models, but just look at the materials. In the promo image, it looks like glass and metal, and then in reality, it's some cheap stamped plastic that you'd expect from a bottom of the barrel vacuum. http://i.imgur.com/RZ8sFxq.jpg http://i.imgur.com/RZ8sFxq.jpg As for the hand dryers, I find they work well and fast. It's a creative idea, and I think they're a success. I imagine they're more difficult to clean though, and get dirty with all the water dripping on them.

mnem 12y ago
You really don't want things made substantially of glass when you have to hold them at arms length and bash them around nooks and crannies :) One of the nice things about Dyson vacuum cleaners is that you can take most of the important bits apart by hand - something other manufacturers don't seem to bother thinking about. Vacuums get blockages all the time, especially if you happen to have cat litter made from wooden chips...
nickflees 12y ago
I own the vacuum pictured in the first link. I bought it with high expectations and disappointment began to set in almost immediately. After 3 years of not-totally-clean floors and periodic struggles getting the rotating brush to work, I finally replaced it with a much cheaper competing brand. My carpets and floors have never been cleaner.
asuffield 12y ago
It appears that you are placing a very high value on how shiny things are and their presentation. In that case Dyson is probably not for you; they are fundamentally an industrial engineering organisation. I own that model of vacuum you have photographed, and it's just.... good. Lightweight, easy to push around tight corners, and sucks up everything in my flat in under 10 minutes without ever having to fight it. It makes it very clear that ever other model I've ever used was not very well-designed. It is not the kind of status symbol that you appear to be seeking. Kirby makes those and I think you'd be a lot happier with their products.
- Throwaway823 12y ago
  I don't care about a status symbol. I'm not in the vacuum market right now and already own a miele. Based on all the hype Dyson tries to generate, their product renders, commercials, sales lingo, etc, I expected this to be the iPhone of vacuums, where it was priced high, because it functions well, and has a great build quality. Instead, it just looked overpriced, and the quality appeared no better than the vacuums a third of the price. I was disappointed, that's all, it looks like they spent their budget on marketing and the quality of the product came second.
  - gbhn 12y ago
    Agree with the GP -- I own this vacuum and it works great. If you're more in the market for a chrome-and-platinum vacuum and don't care as much about the performance, you're probably headed the right direction with what you have. What may be worth understanding, though, is that there are people who are equally willing to pay money for good vacuums, but whose judgment of "good vacuum" runs much more to "suction power and functional ability" rather than "build quality." The idea that there is not a single axis of quality, and that different products can optimize for different axes, is not a new one, but it's one that many tech people in a post-Steve-Jobs era seem to have a hard time remembering.
    - Throwaway823 12y ago
      If you're more in the market for a chrome-and-platinum vacuum and don't care as much about the performance Is no one listening here? I said I care about performance, and build quality. Why can't I ask for both? Perhaps the Dyson performs well. I said I don't have experience with it, but the quality looks cheap. When a product advertises itself as being premium and top of the line, and asks for a high price, I expect both of the above. Likewise, when I spend money on a phone or laptop, I expect it to feel solid. Don't sell me a $1,500 laptop that's built like a $300 Dell Inspiron.
Istof 12y ago
In you first picture, if both angle of view would be the same and if the user-taken picture would have been taken before actually using the vacuum, they would look much more similar... (the dust compartment looks full and hide components)
gfodor 12y ago
So you never actually used the vacuum, but you feel entitled to express on opinion on the quality of the product. Dyson is a design company. Design as in "how it works" not "how it looks." Perhaps the plastic you are complaining about here serves a purpose: keeps the vacuum light and allows the user to bump into things without damaging their furniture or the vacuum.
Bluestrike2 12y ago
It's a vacuum. They suck up dirt. Is it really that much of a stretch to imagine that a vacuum's bin would therefore have dirt in it? The entire point of a clear bin is so that you can see how much dirt is in it and whether it needs to be emptied. The marketing photos show a new, unused vacuum. Duh. The alternative would be as odd as a Johnson & Johnson selling bandages by using a photo of a gory, infected, pus-filled wound on the outside of the box. While that may very well be a valid example of its use, I don't really see many people wanting to buy anything marketed in such a manner.

mnem 12y ago

You really don't want things made substantially of glass when you have to hold them at arms length and bash them around nooks and crannies :) One of the nice things about Dyson vacuum cleaners is that you can take most of the important bits apart by hand - something other manufacturers don't seem to bother thinking about. Vacuums get blockages all the time, especially if you happen to have cat litter made from wooden chips...

nickflees 12y ago

I own the vacuum pictured in the first link. I bought it with high expectations and disappointment began to set in almost immediately. After 3 years of not-totally-clean floors and periodic struggles getting the rotating brush to work, I finally replaced it with a much cheaper competing brand. My carpets and floors have never been cleaner.

asuffield 12y ago

It appears that you are placing a very high value on how shiny things are and their presentation. In that case Dyson is probably not for you; they are fundamentally an industrial engineering organisation. I own that model of vacuum you have photographed, and it's just.... good. Lightweight, easy to push around tight corners, and sucks up everything in my flat in under 10 minutes without ever having to fight it. It makes it very clear that ever other model I've ever used was not very well-designed. It is not the kind of status symbol that you appear to be seeking. Kirby makes those and I think you'd be a lot happier with their products.

Throwaway823 12y ago
I don't care about a status symbol. I'm not in the vacuum market right now and already own a miele. Based on all the hype Dyson tries to generate, their product renders, commercials, sales lingo, etc, I expected this to be the iPhone of vacuums, where it was priced high, because it functions well, and has a great build quality. Instead, it just looked overpriced, and the quality appeared no better than the vacuums a third of the price. I was disappointed, that's all, it looks like they spent their budget on marketing and the quality of the product came second.
- gbhn 12y ago
  Agree with the GP -- I own this vacuum and it works great. If you're more in the market for a chrome-and-platinum vacuum and don't care as much about the performance, you're probably headed the right direction with what you have. What may be worth understanding, though, is that there are people who are equally willing to pay money for good vacuums, but whose judgment of "good vacuum" runs much more to "suction power and functional ability" rather than "build quality." The idea that there is not a single axis of quality, and that different products can optimize for different axes, is not a new one, but it's one that many tech people in a post-Steve-Jobs era seem to have a hard time remembering.
  - Throwaway823 12y ago
    If you're more in the market for a chrome-and-platinum vacuum and don't care as much about the performance Is no one listening here? I said I care about performance, and build quality. Why can't I ask for both? Perhaps the Dyson performs well. I said I don't have experience with it, but the quality looks cheap. When a product advertises itself as being premium and top of the line, and asks for a high price, I expect both of the above. Likewise, when I spend money on a phone or laptop, I expect it to feel solid. Don't sell me a $1,500 laptop that's built like a $300 Dell Inspiron.

Istof 12y ago

In you first picture, if both angle of view would be the same and if the user-taken picture would have been taken before actually using the vacuum, they would look much more similar... (the dust compartment looks full and hide components)

gfodor 12y ago

So you never actually used the vacuum, but you feel entitled to express on opinion on the quality of the product. Dyson is a design company. Design as in "how it works" not "how it looks." Perhaps the plastic you are complaining about here serves a purpose: keeps the vacuum light and allows the user to bump into things without damaging their furniture or the vacuum.

Bluestrike2 12y ago

It's a vacuum. They suck up dirt. Is it really that much of a stretch to imagine that a vacuum's bin would therefore have dirt in it? The entire point of a clear bin is so that you can see how much dirt is in it and whether it needs to be emptied. The marketing photos show a new, unused vacuum. Duh. The alternative would be as odd as a Johnson & Johnson selling bandages by using a photo of a gory, infected, pus-filled wound on the outside of the box. While that may very well be a valid example of its use, I don't really see many people wanting to buy anything marketed in such a manner.