Hoover S3670 vacuum

by Merle Kaufman
(New York, NY)

I had a terrible experience with the Hoover S3670 vacuum cleaner. I owned it for 8 months, during which time it was used maybe a dozen times.

Two weeks ago, the "bag full" light went on half way through vacuuming, on a day when I had actually inserted a new bag; the light itself had not gone on, I was just changing the bag because I was dealing with a new cleaning person and didn't want her to have a problem with a full bag. The bag was therefore not full at all.

Suddenly, she told me that there was almost no suction. We tried everything we could think of to diagnose the problem, including using a narrow metal snake in the hose part of the vacuum, but the snake went straight through, encountering no foreign object.

The next day I was on the phone with Hoover's Customer Service. They told me to clean the 2 filters, which I did, and that they would send me new, lighter bags, which took a week to arrive. The clean filters and new bags made no difference.

I called Customer Service again and was told that there has to be something blocking the hose, and that that was not under warranty. I would have to take the machine to one of their authorized repair shops, which was in the outer boroughs (I live in Manhattan, and most people in Manhattan do NOT have cars; I'm lucky that I was even able to do this).

The repairman told me on the phone that it would cost $10-$15 for him to remove the clog. He actually didn't charge me anything, but told me that the only thing that was clogging the hose was dust, nothing else! He also told me that he'd gotten a lot of the Hoover S3670 Windtunnel vacuum cleaners in for problems with their computer or motherboard, something like that.

I had had a very reliable and sturdy Sears machine for 14 years and never encountered such a ridiculous problem before. However, I wouldn't buy a Sears machine now because they don't have a warranty longer than 3 months, and their customer service on repairs is very inconvenient, cumbersome, is even farther away, and has a long turnaround time.

I had bought the Hoover mainly because it was well-rated by Consumer Reports, and had a 3 year warranty; it was also a very attractively designed model. Evidently it's not so well designed on the inside. I plan to return it to Bed, BAth & Beyond, where I bought it, because they have a "no hassle" return policy.

After this awful problem, I'm not sure what to buy. But I feel like I may have to stick with Bed, Bath and Beyond for any purchase, despite their high prices, because it's easier to return a malfunctioning machine to them than it is to try and get something repaired or examined.