So the vacuum cleaner croaked last week - wife had plugged it in and it just went dead. I bought it for her for Christmas about 3 years ago - it is a good one and I am leary of taking stuff like that to a repair shop b/c I'm always afraid they'll say the motor needs to be replaced or something when a basic repair will do just nicely. From what she described, it seemed that the switch was faulty. I inspected the plug and cord and found nothing obvious, so I decided to procede with taking the whole thing apart (I thought the actual electrical components to the switch would be up in the handle where the actual switch is - not so, not so - the switch is just a mechanical connection that actuates the electronic switch down deep in the guts of the machine!). Marveling over my mastery of taking the vacuum cleaner apart, I got out my handy-dandy circuit tester and started testing the switch and all. The hot wire from the plug all the way to the switch connection was fine, but the neutral wire's connection inside the plug to the prong that goes into the wall outlet was dead! I took the whole dang machine apart, only to find out that I had to replace the plug... Put the machine put back together and replaced the plug (about $2.80) with the help of Maddie, my 3 year old daughter!!!