Machine Dealer Rant - long

I bought my Bernina 200E on E-bay. It was brand-new. My local Bernina
refused to honor a warranty on it. Now just so I can fill you in, I
purchased a 153QE, The little embroidery stand alone Bernina, and a 1200DA
serger from her already. I saved about $1500 on the 200E on E-Bay. Long
story short, I found another dealer who "adopted" my machine and gave me the
warranty coverage. The orignal dealer lost me as a customer and comments to
my friend how she never sees me any more. Bless my friend, she told her why
too. LOL In the end the 200E is problem free and is a dream to operate.
She owns 3 Bernina stores and many people do not like her attitude. She
acts like she is doing you a favor taking your money. Can you say "cutting
off your nose to spite your face?"

Linda in Tx

I got the threading order, but what I couldn't understand was the
diagram for the threading of the lower looper just before it goes into
the eye. The diagrams they give in the book are awful. The serger
person at the dealer did figure it out and I can now use it, so I
guess it was worth the $100. What she figured out did not look
anything like the diagram. But for that price, they did not figure out
how to thread it for the other stitches - the coverlock or the chain
stitch. Now that the mystery of the lower looper is solved, maybe I
can get that by myself.

Linda


Generally, serger thread paths are colour coded: look at the UPPER
looper and see what colour code the thread path has: follow that thread
path with that thread, and do thread UPPER looper first, then lower,
then right and finally left needle.

That's exactly how I feel with this dealer. She could easily have made
a $4,000 sale with a little sugar. I'm sure there is quite a profit on
that. Not the mention all the extras that go along with owning this
type of machine.

I bought my Bernina 440 used and found a multi-machine dealer who
sells them. Talked to them about lessons. After hearing that I already
knew how to use the Artista Software, used embroidery machines and had
previously owned a Bernina, they told me that I was better off
spending money on accessories than lessons. I ordered a few feet and
the magnifying glass from them.

They also sell Babylock, so I will check out the TOL Babylock, which
is the same as the Brother, and, unless the price difference is
significant, will probably go with the Babylock if I decide on a new
machine.


On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 09:57:00 -0500, "nana2b" wrote:

I bought my Bernina 200E on E-bay. It was brand-new. My local Bernina
refused to honor a warranty on it. Now just so I can fill you in, I
purchased a 153QE, The little embroidery stand alone Bernina, and a 1200DA
serger from her already. I saved about $1500 on the 200E on E-Bay. Long
story short, I found another dealer who "adopted" my machine and gave me the
warranty coverage. The orignal dealer lost me as a customer and comments to
my friend how she never sees me any more. Bless my friend, she told her why
too. LOL In the end the 200E is problem free and is a dream to operate.
She owns 3 Bernina stores and many people do not like her attitude. She
acts like she is doing you a favor taking your money. Can you say "cutting
off your nose to spite your face?"

Linda in Tx

There is no excuse for lousy service but I wonder what the mark up
actually is on a 4000K machine. I honestly have no idea but they
aren't 'making' 4000 K.
WIth more of us trading around machines and buying discount I am sure
small businesses feel it. I doubt they are getting rich. I always
thought if you bought a higher end machine the warranty was with the
dealer you bought from. ANyone know about that sort of thing?
Mostly curious.
Taria

witchystitcher wrote:

That's exactly how I feel with this dealer. She could easily have made
a $4,000 sale with a little sugar. I'm sure there is quite a profit on
that. Not the mention all the extras that go along with owning this
type of machine.

I bought my Bernina 440 used and found a multi-machine dealer who
sells them. Talked to them about lessons. After hearing that I already
knew how to use the Artista Software, used embroidery machines and had
previously owned a Bernina, they told me that I was better off
spending money on accessories than lessons. I ordered a few feet and
the magnifying glass from them.

They also sell Babylock, so I will check out the TOL Babylock, which
is the same as the Brother, and, unless the price difference is
significant, will probably go with the Babylock if I decide on a new
machine.


On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 09:57:00 -0500, "nana2b" wrote:


I bought my Bernina 200E on E-bay. It was brand-new. My local Bernina
refused to honor a warranty on it. Now just so I can fill you in, I
purchased a 153QE, The little embroidery stand alone Bernina, and a 1200DA
serger from her already. I saved about $1500 on the 200E on E-Bay. Long
story short, I found another dealer who "adopted" my machine and gave me the
warranty coverage. The orignal dealer lost me as a customer and comments to
my friend how she never sees me any more. Bless my friend, she told her why
too. LOL In the end the 200E is problem free and is a dream to operate.
She owns 3 Bernina stores and many people do not like her attitude. She
acts like she is doing you a favor taking your money. Can you say "cutting
off your nose to spite your face?"

Linda in Tx

witchystitcher wrote:
That's exactly how I feel with this dealer. She could easily have made
a $4,000 sale with a little sugar. I'm sure there is quite a profit on
that. Not the mention all the extras that go along with owning this
type of machine.

This made me think of a story my Bernina dealer tells. She had a woman
come in and ask her all about the 200E. She spent time with this woman,
thinking she had a potential sale here. Then the woman let her know she
was buying a 200E on Ebay for considerably less than the dealer charges.
Crass, just really crass.

--

blackrosequilts
My train of thought left the station without me.

http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts
2005 BOMs: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/blackrosequilts/my_photos

-------- __o
----- -\. -------- __o
--- ( )/ ( ) ---- -\.
-------------------- ( )/ ( )
-----------------------------------------

I originally looked at the 440 at a dealer intending to buy it from
her. She did spend a bit of time showing me the BSR and then left me
alone to play with it for a while. She even said I could bring back a
quilt and try it out on the machine. Life intervened for a while and I
couldn't afford the machine. Later someone on the Yahoo list was
selling one for considerably less and I bought hers. I called the
dealer and discussed the cost of lessons, but, on her advice, instead
of lessons, I dropped a few hundred dollars on accessories for the
machine. I'm sure that over the time I own this machine, this dealer
will have made quite a bit of money from me because she knows how to
treat a customer.

Don't forget, with these embroidery machines, the cost of the machine
is just the beginning.

nana2b wrote:

I bought my Bernina 200E on E-bay. It was brand-new. My local Bernina
refused to honor a warranty on it. Now just so I can fill you in, I
purchased a 153QE, The little embroidery stand alone Bernina, and a 1200DA
serger from her already. I saved about $1500 on the 200E on E-Bay. Long
story short, I found another dealer who "adopted" my machine and gave me the
warranty coverage. The orignal dealer lost me as a customer and comments to
my friend how she never sees me any more. Bless my friend, she told her why
too. LOL In the end the 200E is problem free and is a dream to operate.
She owns 3 Bernina stores and many people do not like her attitude. She
acts like she is doing you a favor taking your money. Can you say "cutting
off your nose to spite your face?"

Linda in Tx


I don't understand why a dealer would quibble about warranty/guarantee
work. If you take your proof of purchase, so they know when the machine
was bought, surely they can do the work? Don't the manufacturers
reimburse them for that? That's the way it works he during the five
year guarantee period, any Husqvarna dealer would have fixed my machine
and Husqvarna would pick up the tab (provided it was a guarantee covered
problem, such as when the carrying handle broke on my Lily)), or would
have sent it back to Husqvarna for fixing.

--
Kate XXXXXX R.C.T.Q Madame Chef des Trolls
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.katedicey.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

Two years ago I bought a Brother SE270 Disney model. It takes a different
bobbin than the Singers I had at the time, so I looked up the only Brother
dealer in the area, a 50-mile round trip from my house. When I get there and
tell the woman behind the counter that I need bobbins for this machine, she
tells me she's never heard of this model. Another woman, who was conducting
a class at the time, contemptuously shouts out that it's one of those cheap
models you buy off the Internet, and tells the other woman which bobbins to
sell me. My initial reaction was to tell them to shove it, but I need the
bobbins, and I did drive some distance, so I buy a dozen bobbins and leave.

When I get home, they're not the right bobbins and they don't fit. I don't
even know what machine they *would* fit. Too bad her attitude cost her a
sale on additional embroidery cards and a walking foot, which was what I was
planning to buy in addition to the bobbins.

--
Valerie in FL
My quilts: http://community.webshots.com/user/vjkahler

witchystitcher wrote:

I originally looked at the 440 at a dealer intending to buy it from
her. She did spend a bit of time showing me the BSR and then left me
alone to play with it for a while. She even said I could bring back a
quilt and try it out on the machine. Life intervened for a while and I
couldn't afford the machine.

That's a bit different than going to a dealer with no intention of
buying a machine from her in the first place, ya know?

Later someone on the Yahoo list was
selling one for considerably less and I bought hers. I called the
dealer and discussed the cost of lessons, but, on her advice, instead
of lessons, I dropped a few hundred dollars on accessories for the
machine. I'm sure that over the time I own this machine, this dealer
will have made quite a bit of money from me because she knows how to
treat a customer.

Sounds like a winner. :-)

--

blackrosequilts
My train of thought left the station without me.

http://community.webshots.com/user/blackrosequilts
2005 BOMs: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/blackrosequilts/my_photos

-------- __o
----- -\. -------- __o
--- ( )/ ( ) ---- -\.
-------------------- ( )/ ( )
-----------------------------------------

I have a Singer Serger that I bought
before I moved to Virginia, but had
never used. I took it to my LQS which is
also a dealer for both Pfaff and
Berninna. (I've introduced several RCTQ
folk to this LQS, Nancy's Calico Patch.
NAYY) I got a private lesson in Serger
Basics (threading, etc) for about 45
minutes (the dealer left me to play
every now and then, but was ALWAYS there
to answer questions) price: $15;
goodwill: priceless. PAT in VA/USa

witchystitcher wrote:

Bought a Brother Serger on Ebay
So I called my local Brother dealer and said, I just bought a new, but
second-hand Brother 2100 serger. Could I come in and pay for lessons
in how to thread it.

Sure, they said - $100.


....cut...