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I think you should definitely let them know. Send them a letter similar to this description. You are so right that they should do better!

Don't you need a little vacation? There is a very nice Bernina dealer near Louise and me.....we'd be glad to have you come visit and take some lessons from them. I'm sure Louise and I could keep you from getting terribly homesick. I could outfit one of the neighbor dogs to look like a gator.

Poly! There is a workbook available. For those with no dealer, you can download it from the yahoolist website. Search yahoolists for Bernina_Aurora, join, then go to the files section. The first thing I did was print this out.

If you are unable to do this, email me at witchystitcheratyahoodotcom and I will try to find a way to get it to you.

Linda PATCHogue, NY

Linda PATCHogue, NY

Naaaah, Kathyl, I'll be okay. I just got some wonderful encouragement from my sister who is also older than dirt. She moaned that she received a new camera for Christmas, a new ipod for her birthday and a new cell phone because it was time. Says she can't work a @#$! one of them. How I love her. Polly

"KJ" Don't you need a little vacation? There is a very nice Bernina dealer near

Thank you, Linda. Actually, I'm doing fine with the new SM. Except, of course, we can't call them SM anymore. The manuals refer to it as the 'sewing computer'. That bit of silly caused the circuits in my head to flicker and dim. Polly

"WitchyStitcher" Poly! There is a workbook available. For those with no dealer, you can

Amen!

I have never found an instruction manual that I can understand. The best I can do is to use the machine, then when I need something specific I go to the instruction manual.. If I am lucky and take a looooooong time I can maybe figure it out. I still can't make buttonholes with my Janome. Please don't tell me how easy it is! LOL I have to go back to the store.

Reminds me of the time "we" got an new farm tractor. Our previous tractors were very old and had no safety features. The new tractor was state of the art. All shifters had to be in Neutral -there were 4- all switches had to be on or off in sequence, clutch depressed, etc., just to start it.

Now I had been driving tractors and vehicles of various sizes, standard/automatic for at least 20 years and I could not start that new tractor. It took me days to learn how to get it started and use it to do the work that HAD to be done, we'd traded the old tractor in on the new.

I am mechanically gifted, I finally threw the book down and then I learned. Sometimes reading the directions doesn't work.

I've only met one sewing machine that I didn't like (a new Cheap Singer). It broke. No, I did not mistreat it.

Bonnie, in Middletown, VA

Most of the troubles, pertaining to instruction manuals, come from the fact that they are almost always produced off shore, and translated from the original language, into English, or whatever language they are trying to service. While the translators have a knowledge of English, or the intended language of translation, they lack a grasp of the subtleties of the Idiom. I am sure I would cause much frustration in some foreign language, if I tried to translate to theirs. What they should do, is have it written in English or whatever, by a native speaker, and not by somebody who uses English as a second language, and most of the problems would disappear. There was a wonderful piece in the local Columbus Dispatch newspaper, about the Chinese signage, at the Olympics, that was written in Chinenglish. or whatever you would call that merging of the picture/symbol language with the roman alphabet based language. Very funny. It brought to mind the early motorcycle manuals, that came over with the first Honda Motorcycles to arrive on these shores in the mid 1960's. Very interesting reading, but not terribly informative.

John

I agree, Polly. I just got a new vacuum yesterday (Electrolux, highly rated by Consumer Reports -- I hope like crazy that *they* know what they're talking about!), and at one point the manual refers to an illustration D on page 14. Page 14 is illustration-free and has only a copy of the warranty on it. To make matters worse, the manual is actually for at least two different models of vacuum, and it falls to the consumer to figure out which illustrations are appropriate for their model. :O Still, the vacuum seems to be doing *very* nicely, now that I've figured out the basics.

I know just what you mean John:

This is from the handbook for my new LCD monitor at work:

"Be carefully to your LCD monitor, it's very exquisite but easy to broken" (however they have got the apostrophe correct :-) )

Our german clients were highly amused when we translated "grub screw" as "wurmschrau" - apparently the meaning is more literal over there.

Lizzy

And DH could join you, and we'd have a darned good time!

Trouble is, it isn't just sewing machines. It's cell phones, DVD players, cameras. My last cell phone had this "wonderful" little book that told you what all was listed in each menu (as if I couldn't see that for myself), but didn't tell you how to do anything! The instruction book that came with our DVD player/stereo/radio came with instructions for so many different models it was almost impossible to figure out which instructions applied to your model and if you did figure out that much the instructions still didn't make sense anyway.

At least we can't complain about the instruction manuals that come with software anymore - there aren't any! You have to use the help files, that many times aren't very helpful.

Donna in SW Idaho

Oh yeah....I didn't mean to leave Mr. Polly out. He can come too!

LOL. Thanks, Lizzy. At least I didn't have to look for a wurmschrau. That really might have shoved my sweet disposition over the edge. Polly

"Lizzy Taylor"

My DH can't see to read teensy fine print anymore and often hands instructions for me to read to him. "In English, please," he always cautions me. Somehow I think this means me rattling off his directions in Portuguese is not very funny. I liked it. Polly

"Donna in Idaho" Trouble is, it isn't just sewing machines. It's cell phones, DVD players,