I guess it depends on what you mean by inexpensive. I have never had this trouble with my Brothers. Is there a diagram showing you which way to load in the bobbin? That should be a two second job. Something doesn't sound right there. Just drop it in - let the 4" piece of thread lay aside... bring down your upper thread by rolling the hand wheel enough that it takes up the bobbin thread. Run your pencil, ripper, anything front to back through those threads and that should send both thread ends to the back of the machine. You should be ready to sew. Or maybe I just can't understand what the trouble is with the thread/bobbin. Can you take a picture of the problem and post that here?