Where to buy?

"Norm Dion" wrote

Before purchasing a machine on line you should check and see how much of the warranty is honored and by who. I would always buy a new machine from a dealer, they don't always honor warranties on machines not bought from them. You usually have to ship it to the company. And most will supply classes that will teach your wife to use all the bells and whistles.

I can't agree more with Ruth. Last spring when I went shopping for an embroidery machine, my husband found all sorts of "good deals" on line. I really wanted to buy from our local dealer and am glad that is the way we went. The classes, & support have been super!! Not to mention it is nice have a local dealer just a quick phone call away to answer silly and not so silly questions. Look around at your local dealers first before going elsewhere. Julie

I bought on-line and saved HALF on my machine. Never had to ship it in for service. Local dealer will service it anyway, and I can pay for anything I need with the 2500 bucks I saved.......... Good for you getting a Brother......they are normally trouble free...........

Warranty terms are set by the manufacturer. You need to visit your local friendly neighbourhood Brother dealer.

gwh

You are lucky your local dealer will help you with support from a machine bought on-line. I purchased 3 machines from my local dealer and bought a brand new machine on E-bay and she will not support me on the machine at all. As a result I buy NOTHING from her at all. I was lucky enough to find another dealer to "adopt" me. They now have my loyalty and my disposable cash. Nana

You won't even need to worry about the best warranty available if the machine doesn't get but a few hours of use. The embroidery machines today are not operated like the Singers of 1950. It's most unusual for somebody to just sit down and sew and actually get the performance they paid for. The first thing you should be checking into is how close and co operative YOUR nearest Brother dealer is. You need to walk into that store and question the owner personally. More than likely any classes they give and that includes Introductory Operation 101 will not be free if you buy this machine online. I read this NG all the time and 75% of the questions asked and troubles talked about would have been covered in those first few introductory classes. If it won't be easy or economical ( Are you willing to pay for classes?) for your wife to get to classes to learn to operate her machine I personally wouldn't bother, no matter what brand you buy.

I've done extensive sewing for 50+ years and I have had a TOL Viking for several years and I still take every class I can get to. I took the FREE dealer offered intro class for a week before I even started doing embroidery on my machine and I'm glad I did. In fact, after using it for a about 6 months I took the FREE intro class again just to get what I missed the first time around. That alone saved a lot of frustration and headaches. I still take every free class I can and a lot of the ones requiring a fee (which are discounted since I bought my machine there) as well. However they are not free or discounted to those who did not buy a machine from this dealer nor, as far as I'm concerned, should they be. There's more to it than just plugging it in and pressing the foot pedal. She is going to need to learn fabric placement, stabilizers, situations with different fabrics and threads, assembly, maintenance, troubleshooting and the list goes on. Manuals are all fine and well but they do not replace the hands on education of good dealer classes. Or even the telephone support that a really good dealer (as mine does) will give you.

Brother might have one of the best warranties on the market but if you don't have a decent dealer with an in house or a good repair policy it won't matter, you'll still have headaches getting it fixed. And if your wife doesn't learn to properly operate her machine it WILL need to be fixed, and often, or she just won't use it out of shear frustration and then you won't have to worry about anything but dusting it. I know several sewing machine repair people personally and others that have commented in other sewing NGs and they will all tell you that the repairs on GOOD machines are usually caused by user error or abuse.

So, in my opinion the way for you to get GOOD VALUE, as you call it, is to go talk to your Brother dealer about how he handles a machine that isn't purchased from his store because all have different policies and levels of co operation when it comes to machines and how they handle their customers. Unless your next door neighbor, who also has bought a Brother PC-6500, off the net, is totally satisfied with the dealer honoring a fabulous warranty, answers your question all the other answers you get here, from this group, will be moot.

The other thing I personally have a serious problem with is that you are going to buy your wife a machine, site unseen or tested BY HER. The way to truly get a machine is for the user to actually sit down and sew on it. You will find those most satisfied with a machine and actually use it to it's fullest capabilities are those who took their own fabric swatches THEY most want to sew on and go to the dealers and test the machines themselves, not stand and watch over the shoulder of a demonstrator. I spent over a year going to different dealers and sewing on their machines before I finally made a purchase and I'm glad I did. I sure didn't end up with the one I had originally planned to buy and for many good reasons.

If you really want to give your wife a gift she will enjoy for years to come give her a check or a set budget and take her around and let her try these machines out while you stand VERY PATIENTLY out of the way (preferably out of site) unless you plan on using it as much as her, while SHE makes up her mind as to the best machine for her use and sewing abilities.

I'm all for finding or bargaining for the best deal possible ( my dealer all but braces himself and says "OMG, I'm about to be Tangierian rug merchant again. LOL) but sometimes $$$$ amounts are not the only thing to factor in when looking for the answer.

Val

Best prices on the internet:

She is an authorized Brother/Pacesetter dealer. I recently purchased my ULT2003D from her and I'm very pleased with her service. Also, if you register your machine on Brother's site, they will send you a "permission slip" for a dealer close to home where you can take lessons for the machine. Julie

is a good place but also try Marv has some unbelievable prices. You might want to consider going with a larger machine since they are having a great sale now until the end of the year. The Ult 2003D is on sale for a really good price along with some added items for free!