Originally Posted by IngeMK
So I took my Janome 6600 and an older Kenmore to my dealer for service..... I almost had to laugh, they asked for $25.00 Deposit on the work. Really? I leave over $1500.00 worth of machines there and have to pay 25 bucks???? Do they think I won't pick them up??
I'm more amused than anything, BUT is this normal to do for a shop?
The great guy who services my machine has a deposit up front. I asked him why, thinking like you that there is no way I would abandon my $1000 machine. Not only did he charge a deposit, he had a contract that said that if I didn't pick up my machine within 30 calendar days after he notified me by mail that my machine was ready he was free to sell it. He said he would telephone first but if after 3 or 4 calls, all he got was a machine or no answer, then he'd mail a letter and the time period would commence.
He took me to his storage room. Turns out that a fair number of people really do abandon their sewing machines. I was flabbergasted. He had 10 or more sewing machines in there that customers had abandoned and they weren't all cheap ones, either. He'd accepted them before he instituted contracts, so he felt he couldn't sell them or give them away. All he could do was let them take up room in his storage area.
He said that people still abandoned their machines at least a couple times a year, but with the deposit and the ability to sell them to recoup his costs, it didn't bother him so much.