Small rant about (discontinued) small appliances

[Tabby]

My step daughter accidentally tossed the dust cup filter when she emptied out my dust buster about a week ago. I didn't discover it until the other day - after garbage day when there's no hope of recovering it. I looked up in the manual and supposedly you are supposed to replace this thing periodically anyway. So you would think this part would be widely available - no? Well - no! It has been discontinued. The dustbuster is only a few years old. It hasn't even worn out its original battery (something I normally consider to be the lifespan of a typical cordless appliance). I can't replace this thing anywhere. The thing still works but naturally it's an electrical hazard to use it without the dust cup filter.

If this happened 2 weeks ago I could have got it onto my Christmas list but it's already too late. But that's not the point. I have a perfectly functioning dust buster vacuum that is merely missing a piece that probably cost $1 to manufacture ($0.05 if they do it in China). The company (Fantom) still makes hand held vacuums but for whatever reason they've changed them so they use a different part. I almost think I could MacGyver my own part out of an old sock or something but the whole electric shock thing scares me. I pretty much have to buy a brand new one. I feel completely ripped off.

Whatever happened to accountability and standing behind your product?

Thanks for listening, DDBB.

[StraightForward]

Check eBay?

[Hayburner]

Another vote for Ebay...it's amazing what people sale....and people need....LOL

[Tabby]

I've tried ebay. The trouble is that it's a specific part that only fits this specific vacuum. Which is stupid. Now I'm going to toss a perfectly good motor and plastic casing into the land fill all because some company knew darn well that people like me would end up buying a new one.

[galopp]

Usually if you know the piece number you can replace them. I had a channel changer for an OLD like 15 years + sony tv (only gets the 1-99 stations) that I used in a guest room, but I was able to replace it with the last one in Seattle by doing a search, and it was cheap.

[Kelo]

Did you google search the product model and description? There are usually resellers for that kind of thing. Or call the company? Surely youre not the first one to need a replacement of a replaceable part!

What an annoyance for you!

[Tabby]

I did a google search. It doesn't appear that people keep these things if they don't have the actual vacuum. In the case of mine, the dust filter fell out when my stepdaughter was emptying it and she didn't notice. I didn't notice until after I used it and went to empty it myself. I'm sure it has happened to others.