I had to bite the bullet and get a new vac for AATH. The old one completely died during a cleaning at a commercial client. It was very embarrassing. I mean, it was embarrassing enough dragging in my beat up Hoover upright with a cord that used to belong to the string trimmer jerry-rigged onto it ( because I ran over the original cord in the foyer of our house in Gardner and almost started a fire!) Every time I turned it on and sounded like something that was getting ready for take off, but finally it just gave a half hearted "voom" and stopped.

Lovely.

So I went to Boscov's because they have a good selection of vacs and many of the people who work in the small applience.....

department have been there for awhile and they know a little bit about the product. That, or they are willing to find out. I was determined that I had to have a canister model - the uprights are just too heavy for me to push and carry around. What I really wanted was one of the Electrolux models that they now sell at Lowes. I don't think they're as good as the old 'Lux's that would last for 25 years...but they were MUCH lighter weight than anything else on the market.

I even had a chance to try out one of those Orick vacs, since one of my clients who requests that I use her equipment got one. It WAS a lot lighter than her old one, but it was not any easier to manuever. Nor was I all that impressed with the suction. I mean, it was good, but not significantly better than any other vac that was brand new. You couldn't get under furniture with it, and the attachments were not all that easy to use. I was underwhelmed, and really glad that I hadn't ordered one at $300 + .

Anyway, it turned out that they had the same Electrolux vacs at Boscov's....and at a serious discount. The Harmony model was discounted over $100. Still, that put it at about $300, which is a big investment for my oh-so-micro business. I tried it out. It WAS quiet, as promised, so lightweight that I could easily lift the canister part in one hand while running th vac, yet it had serious power. The sales guy was new, but he turned it over to see where it was made, showed me how the bag went in, gave me a general idea of what the attachments were like ( "It comes with a whole set but, um, actually, I think somebody might have ripped them off" he said sheepishly.)

"What the difference between that and the other model?" I asked, pointing.

"The Oxygen one? That has a different filter, and the head is a lot larger, though it does have a smaller attachement for stairs. Of course it's more expensive."

"Mmm. I think I more need manuverability and the light weight. It's an awefully good price. How long are they on sale?"

"Oh, honey, I think you ought to go for it." The Hub chimed in, "Your back is really starting to bother you, and this'll go right under most furniture. That upright is totally dead....I mean, I fixed it, but it's now actually held together with duct tape."

So I had him ring it up. Then we went down to customer service and they brought out the one with our name on it.

Riding home in the jeep I looked at the box. " I think this the wrong one." I said. "It looks like this picture shows the larger head on the more expensive model."

"Maybe they just use a generic box. Those models were really similar."

But, of course, it was the wrong one. We looked at each other.

"We ought to take it back." I said.

"Yeah. We should." he said.

Winston sniffed it.

"Hmm. Then why are we just sitting here?" I asked.

"Yeah, I know." The Hub said. "Maybe its not a big deal if we keep it."

"Maybe."

We looked at it.

"It's not like we get a lot of breaks." he said, mildly.

"Yeah, that's true. It's not. It's not like Mr. Boscov really needs the $100." I said.

We sat there some more. We looked at it. The dog lay down.
We looked at each other.

"We gotta take it back" we both said at the same time.

We gathered all the stuff up and put it back in the box as best we could. I had to ride with it on my lap.

"It's not like we have to drive to Pennsylvania" The Hub said.

"Some guy in shipping could really get in trouble about this if we didn't return it." I said.

The red headed young lady with mulitple tattoos who had helped us with the pick up was out side the customer pick-up place smoking when we came back. She looked depressed. "Is something wrong with it."

"This is the wrong one. This one cost way more than the one we paid for." The Hub said.

"We wanted to - I didn't want - the thing is, we're Christians and we just couldn't keep it."

"It ain't right." The Hub muttered.

We were both pretty sure this young woman was going to be angry that we were were bothering her with the return and that she was going to think we were stupid besides.

Instead her whole face lit up with a smile. " I understand that, sister!" she said, and ground out her ciggarette. "Hey! Hey Ben! Who pulled this Electrolux? Ya pulled the wrong one.....and don't give these people any s---, cause they did the right thing ya know?"

Anyway, we got the correct vac. I tried it out. It works on dog hair and it is really light weight.

Weather it was dumb of us or not to take the other one back, the weight on my concience is a lot lighter too.