Saturday, September 15, 2012

Back in Business

The past few months have not been pleasant as far as my embroidering goes. I have had problems with my machine for quite some time. The first time I had a problem we took it to a place in Erie (40 miles away) and they adjusted the tension and timing. Brought it home and it worked great for approximately 4 months. Then I had troubles again. So, back it went. When I got it back this time it worked for about two weeks. Got it back, same thing. So up to Erie it went again. This last time all they told me was to watch my threading. Well if I were threading it wrong then why did it work ok for those four months? I was getting suspicious that they didn't really do anything with it.

This suspicion, I believe, was confirmed this week. I called a Bernina dealer in town just to see if she could work on a White. I was told by a local Janome dealer that they couldn't work on anything that wasn't a Janome because the different brands of embroidery machines all operate differently. So I assumed she would tell me the same thing. I really didn't want to take it back to the place in Erie. To my surprise she said she could work on it. So we dropped it off Thursday morning. She plugged it in, tried it out and noticed right away it wasn't working correctly. So she said she'd take a look at it.

To my surprise, she called back that afternoon saying she had got it working again. I was shocked to find out what all was wrong with it:

1) Parts were put back in the wrong order
2) There was a bar or something bent where the upper thread goes.
3) Bobbin bracket was bent and rubbing on the bobbin thread causing it to bunch up
4) There was sticky gunk in it (she said probably from the thread or something--she wasn't sure what it was)

With all that wrong with it, it's no wonder I'd been having so many problems! This leads me to believe that the other place probably wasn't even looking at it. Surely they could've found SOMETHING with all that wrong with it! I'm just happy they weren't charging us every time we took it in (except for the 1st time when they actually did fix it). Makes me wonder if they were waiting for the year warranty to run out so they could charge to fix it again. Needless to say, I will NEVER take any machine back there.

Now, for the fun part! When we took my machine into the local shop, she showed us an older model Bernina embroidery machine that a lady had traded in. It was almost identical to mine. Both were made by Brother. It took the same hoops, card, and was the same format as mine. It also came with two hoops, the manual, a dust cover and 13 design cards (which cost from $60-$100 EACH). She wanted $350 for the whole shebang. So Mike said we'd think it over.

We decided that was a pretty good deal so when we got my machine on Friday, we brought home two of them. Now I have a backup! I tried the Bernina out when we got home and it works beautifully. AND it's not nearly as loud as the White. I have yet to plug it in and try it out since I got it back but I will do that soon. I may just use it as my backup and the Bernina as my main machine.
The New Bernina
Design cards I got with it
Stitch out on the Bernina.