Grand Lake Sew & Vac Center

Great place, great folks, great selection. I just walked in and paid the same price for my new vacuum (Miele) as I would have online — they price match, AND handle the warranty repairs. How’s that for the vacuum shop in my backyard?
I’m a return customer… a while back, our other vac (Hoover) was having issues. We were ready for a new one, but they walked us through things and ultimately we decided to repair our Hoover and got several more years out of it. That made us a customer for life. So when we finally decided it was time to upgrade (the Hoover still works!), it was obvious we’d give them our business.

What sucks and doesn’t suck at the same time? A broken vacuum! Hah.
Grand Lake Sew and Vac definitely doesn’t suck. They’re pretty great, actually. As I write this review, I’m marveling at my Miele’s reborn vigor as I clean the living room carpets. A week ago it was a sputtering, sorry shadow of its former self. Now, it leaves the floors cleaner than ever before. Wow, it just slurped up this giant dust bunny from under the couch. Gross.
Grand Lake Sew and Vac is a small business through and through. What they lacked in celerity (they said they’d have an estimate for fixing the vacuum I brought in within 4 days; they never called me, so I came in after a week to check my status. They gave me a price in person, and it was ready the next day), they made up for in friendliness. I would definitely come back with my next broken vacuum.
Parking is very limited unless you’re there on a weekday during the day. Be prepared to carry that broken sucker a block or two. Yes, all done with the living room. Time for the kitchen. ALL SHALL BE CLEAN!

I don’t usually post negative reviews and I try to be accurate and impartial when I review businesses. I’m sorry but I have to give this shop 1 star. The people who ran it were friendly, but I contacted them 3 times to get a part for my Eureka upright and they never got back to me! The first time I came in person to order the part. When they didn’t call for two weeks I phoned them and asked if it had arrived and they said no, they would contact me when it came in. Several weeks pass and I call again, same answer. It’s been over a month since that call and still nothing. That’s pretty lousy service.

You lied to me, person on the phone Saturday. You SAID you would be open Sunday from 11 – 5. There is a sign in the window that says «Sunday 11−5».
It’s 4pm and you’re closed, and I have a carpet shampoo machine in need of belts sitting in my car now. I’m annoyed.

What more can I say than has already been reported here? However, I’ll pile on anyway ’cause great local businesses deserve all the support we can give them.
The superlatives are:
— Know their stuff at the expert level whether you’re bringing in a repair job or looking to purchase a new one.
— Refreshingly honest folks. If they tell you your vacuum cleaner has become a toaster and you need a new one, believe them.
— VERY competitive with online prices… I checked.
— They listen to what you need, recommend the best value and will explain the trade offs on lower cost options.
— Friendly and attentive customer service.
— And, worth repeating, this is a one location small business that shows you it’s appreciation.
One last bit of advice: Many of us have a professional house cleaner who actually uses the vacuum most of the time. Sometimes our language skills aren’t sufficient to explain how to use the features of a new device. So, while I was taking care of the paperwork with Fred, the most pleasant owner, Saul briefed our housekeeper in her native tongue so she’d be up to speed and take good care of our new mid-​price Miele. Where else can you get service like that!

I felt compelled to Unilocal about my experiences at Grand Lake Sew & Vac. First of all, they have it all in one store, Hi End German vacs, mid-​priced vacs, Very knowledgeable and friendly staff. I have been there 3 times in the last month for different needs for my Miele and my Sebo. They helped me get the parts I needed and helped repair my machines for less than I expected. If you have a broken Vac, they can fix it! Also, they have a huge stock of parts and accessories at the store which is great because they were able to accommodate repair without waiting for parts to be ordered. Recommend!

Silly me. Searched high and low for a particular vacuum filter and didn’t realize that this shop is right here in my own backyard. They had it in stock. And they even replaced it for me. I wasn’t in the market for a new vacuum however soon I’ll have to replace it. So I decided to test drive a few along with my co-​pilot (kid#3). The whir of the motors got us all revved up for spring cleaning. Dust bunnies beware!
I love the staff here– Fred is a stellar
Dude. All the staff here are professional and cool.

They provided me with quality service on our vac – it needed a new belt and filter. They even cleaned the old girl! They said it would only take a few days and they would call with the estimate. When I noticed that that time had gone by, I called thinking I missed their call. Well, they hadn’t even looked at it and seemed to have misplaced my information and the vac. It could have been a abnormal snafu, but if you’re relying on getting your appliance back in a timely manner (I have a toddler and my MIL was coming into town), it does well to check in.

These people were very professional, and quick to get to the issue we had with our vacuum — just excellent. As it turned out, our 15 year old vacuum was pretty well shot, not worth fixing, and if we had gone ahead with repair, t would have taken a long time, because there was a wait on the Kenmore parts.
I didn’t have to pay a penny for their looking at it and diagnosing the situation. We ended up having them send it to a recycler, which was also FREE. I felt a little guilty about not paying anything, but this is their policy. I felt like they were a standup company who knows what they are doing.
I saw people on Unilocal complaining about their hourly rate, but anyone with a brick and mortar business has to charge enough to keep their doors open, so I don’t feel like the rate I heard people quoting was excessive. Besides, they are so fast that I bet they wouldn’t rack up much time.
I’ll definitely go back next time I need repair.

I have been in twice over the last few years to have my vacuum cleaner cleaned and repaired. I love my 13-​year old Dyson vac like a… well I just love it. These guys took him in and brought him back to his younger years! They are super nice, competent, and fair. If you have a sick vacuum, this is the place to go!

I dropped off 2 beat up commercial work vacuums here on two different occasions last month (January 2015). Both times went as well as they could; great customer service, dropped off my items, got a call with an estimate, picked them up a few days later, and took them back to work. My coworkers are all pleased with how much easier the vacuums are to use. They fixed suction problems, replaced a shorting power cord, and replaced broken/​beat up parts and cleaned them up nicely. I thought the price was fair, a little over $ 100 for each vacuum, about half of which were parts and half labor.
I plan to bring them my Dyson from home to get cleaned up and tuned up. I’ll update if it doesn’t go well!

For over a year I’ve wanted a proper vacuum cleaner. After reading the fantastic threads by touchmyfuckingcoffee on reddit (
) I decided I wanted a Miele S8. Grand Lake Vacuum was fantastic when I went in to purchase it.
I originally wanted the Miele S8 Uniq, but they pointed me towards the S8590 since it was the same vacuum, but $ 500 less expensive. They also told me to get the SEB 236 power head over the SEB 217 because of all the area rugs in my home.
Overall this was a fantastic shopping experience and I’m very happy to have my new vacuum!

Unilocalsters, some of y’all got to chill! A few one star reviews almost persuaded me not to return here. I had a vacuum cleaned here a few years ago, and had a positive experience, but it seemed from reviews that it was under new management. I brought another vacuum here for cleaning this week, and again had a great experience. Everyone was helpful, friendly, professional, communicative, and kind. One of the 1 Star reviews said they were $ 50/​hour. That’s definitely not the case and I think the store’s owner would be wise to reply to some errant posts. In any event, we give ‘em a both paws up. :)

We really needed Eureka vacuum bags at my work and I could not find them anywhere! A customer reccommended that I try this place and I couldnt be more pleased with my experience here.
For some reason, i have this idea that everything will be overpriced in a small business compared to a chain or large scale store. However, this was not the case here. A bag of 3 vacuum bags was only 6.99! So i bought 3 packs and the store clerk gave me 10% off my whole order!
It was a very pleasant experience and I would definitely be back with all of my vacuuming needs!

Labor is now $ 50/​hour. Wow! New Ownership — new prices.

I think these folks are super nice. I told Fred and Raja, who I think are the new owners, that it must be hard to take over a business that was so loved in the neighborhood, but so they are definitely winning my business.
I own a dog walking business and have cats and dogs in my home, plus I often board a couple dogs. The fur scene is intense. They tuned up my Miele Olympus, replaced a part that I didn’t even realize was affecting the suction, and gave me a great deal on replacement bags. They also took care of my vacuum in a few hours so I didn’t have to be without it – even for one night!
I will definitely continue to recommend this business.

This review is for the Grand Lake location only. I suspect the high ratings here largely reflect the El Cerrito shop, which is now closed. Well, BEWARE! I’m taking the time to share my experience to hopefully save others from something so frustrating and outright disagreeable.
I had an issue with assembling one part of a Eureka vacuum, which resulted in it leaking dust. So I called Eureka, and they suggested running it over to the El Cerrito shop (which no one told them was closed) so someone could show me in person how to assemble it correctly. Well, I ended up at Grand Lake.
You would think a business would want to have at least a modicum of customer service (especially in this day and age with Unilocal). Not this place! The owner was RUDE to the point of disgusting. He acted like he didn’t hear a word I said. My only options were to leave the vacuum so they could clean and «service» it, and he would call me, or take it elsewhere.
Well, having driven all that way, I left it. I waited a week, and when (surprise!) he hadn’t called, I called them. At that point, I had called Eureka again and they suggested I not deal with this place.
So I went down to pick up my vacuum. The owner informed me I had assembled a piece wrong, and did I want to pay to clean and «service» it? Duh! That’s what I told him the problem was a week ago! In all the time spent telling me he wouldn’t do anything if he hadn’t first cleaned and serviced it, he could have showed me a dozen times over how to tighten the loose piece (that’s what I figured out was the whole issue, when I brought it home and fixed it myself). So why should I pay for a complete servicing when that was unnecessary? Besides the vacuum was on warranty. I guess all he was interested in was making a buck.
In any case, you couldn’t pay me to go back to this place! I don’t know about you, but I prefer to do business where folks are courteous, helpful, and show at least a little compassion to the world.

I dropped my dyson vac off for repair at the El Cerrito location on Saturday. Apparently, the following Wednesday, the owner advised employees that she was closing the El Cerrito store, told their repair technician to report to the Oakland location, and told El Cerrito employees to call everyone who had dropped off their vacuum for repair and instruct them to come pick up their vacuums (still broken).
I can think of so many other ways this could have been handled. Stop taking new vacuums in. Keep technician at El Cerrito location until vacs already in the shop are repaired. Offer to move vacuum to Oakland location and repair it there. Instead I had to go back to the shop to pick up my broken vacuum.
I will never do business with this company, even though they are the only game in town.

I live in Alameda, so I bought a vacuum cleaner at the sew & vac shop in Alameda to patronize local business. They talked us into buying an expensive model for the lifetime repair warranty, and it broke down within 18 months, so of course I brought it back there… and there it sat, lonely and untouched, for FIVE WEEKS, while the «repair shop» staff were surly with me on the phone whenever I tried to find out its’ status and consistently tried to fob me off with some increasingly-​unlikely sob story about incredibly hard-​to-​find parts. Finally, frustrated, linty, covered in cat hair, my husband and I picked up our expensive piece of broken junk from the Alameda «repair shop» and brought it over to Oakland’s Grand Lake Sew & Vac. The dedicated, actually-​functional staff at Grand Lake Sew & Vac diagnosed AND FIXED my vacuum cleaner in TWENTY MINUTES. It is now sitting back in my home atop newly-​vacuumed carpets, after being transformed back into a lean mean cleaning machine in less than half an hour. I will always be using Grand Lake Sew & Vac for any of my future sew & vac related needs – I’m just sorry I didn’t purchase the damn thing from them in the first place.
In short: Grand Lake Sew & Vac in Oakland just got a whole new family of loyal customers, and the other place in Alameda can go blow itself.

After some weekend festivities, an unfortunate series of late night events — the details of which are still foggy — occurred involving a small pickup truck, my idiot friends and my Bissell ProHeat Carpet Cleaner.
Apparently my carpet cleaner and a vehicle, both of which were reportedly moving at low speed and both of which were being «driven» by separate idiot friends, made «contact» in the middle of a residential street in Emeryville. It seems my carpet cleaner bore the brunt of the damage.
The next morning I hopped on Unilocal and searched around for the best vacuum repair place in the East Bay. The reviews for the Grand Lake Vac Center were stellar, so I decided that was going to be my spot. A wonderful fellow named Ron helped me over the phone. He wanted to know what happened, and was very professional when I explained the subtleties of the series of events that led me to seek his services. Though I’m sure a guy who runs a vacuum shop has heard it all.
Ron was even more helpful when I made it down to the store. The pricing was insanely cheap — frankly, I don’t know how they stay in business — but within 24 hours I had a working carpet cleaner and a bill to give to my idiot friend.
Great store, great customer service, and also very discreet with unusual vacuum incidents such as this.
This is now my vacuum repair shop for life — thanks Ron.