Patternreview - a great web site! With car shopping AND sewing machine shopping, i have had good luck calling first with small or large questions. At the used car lot, espcially, we got better attention because they knew we were "serious". With the sewing machine dealer, one call was enough to know i would not be getting that model (a midarm, lol).
I will even call on the cell phone, from the parking lot, if i have to.