When you buy like that you have to send the machine in to be worked on or you pay a lot to have a repairman at a shop do it. A machine through a dealer is always better. You always have at least a year on any machine and then a 5 year warrenty on most of the basic machines. Personaly I would never buy from CostCos, Wal Mart, K Mart just because of that. YOu pay a few hundred for a machine and have a problem and just one service call will be around $100 and you could of spent a little more and had that covered through a dealer. Just Food for thought. Good luck whatever you decide. And the better the machine the easier to use the more she may like sewing.