Mdaniels

Aside from the dealer from whom I purchased my Aurora 430, are there reliable online purchase sites one would recommend with fairly quick shipping? The dealer is a little bit of a drive and I will make purchases there when I am in the area--but I'd like to know if there are other options, especially with winter around the corner. Thanks!

Silver Needle

Why not call your dealer and ask them to ship the feet you are interested in? They can't weigh much so shipping would be minimal.

KLO

I have bought a few Bernina 153 feet on ebay but I made sure I checked on a few things about the auction item before bidding such as: were the feet "real" Bernina made feet; would they fit my machine (old style as opposed to new style); did the seller have a high positive rating; would they allow returns if the feet did not fit the machine; etc. If I wasn't sure about any of those questions, I asked the seller about it. There are usually a number of feet for sale on ebay at any given time. It just depends on whether the one(s) you are looking for are there when you want them ... and how soon the auction ends if you want one quickly. And of course you would have to have a PayPal account too. That being said, I do like the idea of asking your local but a bit- too-far-away dealer if they would be willing to ship as Silver Needle suggested.

jcrow

Talk about winter around the corner. I woke at 2 am and got ready to drive to my dealer over the mountain pass to take my Bernina in because she isn't working and hasn't been for a couple of weeks and it's been snowing on the pass and I knew that my husband was home today and we could make it today. Well, when he woke up he said "Did you look outside yet?" I knew what that meant. SNOW! Oh no! We had so much snow and the freeway was closed. Will I ever get to sew again? I need studded tires but it's an 8 hour wait right now and I can't sit in Les Schwab Tires for 8 hours. I just can't do it! Please melt snow! Let me get my sewing machine fixed! Please oh please oh please!!!!

bearisgray

Those machines must be soooo temperamental! I read a couple of reviews about them - seems like Bernina released them before they got a lot of glitches taken care of and/or the technicians up to speed.

I would be so frustrated and disappointed with that machine.

Do you have back-up machines that you can use?

Wintersewer

jcrow did not say what model she owns. Most Berninas are good dependable machines. True...there have been many problems with the new 700 series machines. For what they cost, I expect Bernina to get them working properly very soon.
She needs a second machine. Check Craigslist...usually plenty of good inexpensive machines on there.

lfstamper

I love ALL THREE of my Bernina's. They do require normal maintenance but are very reliable and sew wonderfully. I do hope the snow melts for jcrow so she can get her machine serviced and sew again.

FroggyinTexas

Try Amazon.com. There are lots of sewing machine supply and equipment stores there and I've gotten some really good deals. froggyintexas

Skyangel

Bernina Dealers are not allowed to post prices or sell online. One way Bernina has of protecting dealers territories. That said, some will take an order over the phone and ship accessories. And as KLO said, there are always Bernina feet on ebay but you need to make sure is is genuine Bernina. You want to make sure the white sticker with the number looks right, but the picture may not be the one you get so check feedback before you buy if you go the ebay route. I bought one once that turned out ot be a poor fake - the needle hit the foot when it lowered. Fortunately, the seller took it back.

I have had a 440 for over 6 years and I absolutely love it. I has had regular maintenance but never had a problem otherwise. The embroidery unit had a bad board when it was new but has worked great since it was replaced. I also brought a vintage Bernina 910 (little sister to the 930 without decorative stitches) for a backup machine and it is still going strong too. My only experience with the new 830 was an embroidery project class with a Bernina educator where they furnished the 830s for everyone to use. It was a great machine, and I loved the jumbo hoop. The jumbo hoop is the only thing that really tempts me, being able to quilt a 12" quilt block at once instead of re-hooping. I can only do 6" designs.