I took an old Sears Kenmore to a dealer once to be maintenanced/cleaned. He called me up and LITERALLY told me my machine was a piece of crap, not worth repairing and he would just "go ahead and throw it out" for me and we could talk about purchasing a new Baby-lock. I actually had to argue with him to get the machine back, he was so adamant to throw it out. This machine works fine other than occasionally getting confused about what thread is for....I still love it though. It was my first machine. Sorry your dealer was sucky too. ;)