Hello, and welcome to this awesome board! I actually bought my last 2 machines on-line, and they have been terrific! I have a Brother PC-420 that I use for regular sewing, and it has lots of stitches. Purchased from Amazon, and actually the 1st one I received dropping the feed dogs seemed "off" to me. I contacted Amazon about it and they overnighted me a new machine and paid for me to send the 1st one back, now that amazed me! I have nothing but great things to say about the machine and the customer service I received! I also purchased a Brother PQ-1500 from Allbrands.com, and have nothing but good things to say about the machine and the customer service from there, too. The 1500 is considered an "industrial" machine, it has a 9" throat plate, is a straight stitch machine only..I bought it mainly for my fmq; as my PC-420 does do fmq, and actually does a nice job of it, but I worried that I would burn it up or something if I used it too much for that (which is probably a needless worry...lol) So I purchased the more heavy duty 1500...Besides anyway, can't hurt to have 2 machines, eh??..
. I recently purchased a Grace machine quilting frame, but haven't tried my PQ-1500 on it yet. The PQ-1500 also has Pin-feed system which makes is awesome when I am piecing my quilts, especially chain piecing. Both machines have the knee lever and auto thread cut, which is something I really wanted. I know it really is just a matter of preference, and I also know that some say buy local to get the best customer service...After I weighed pros and cons I just couldn't see paying up to $500.00 more for the same machine to buy it locally...for that I could really almost buy another machine!
.. Here are links to the 2 machines I have, in case you want to check them out more in depth, and feel free to pm me if you have any other questions..
http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Limite...her+pc-420+prw
http://www.allbrands.com/products/15...ine-599-dollar
Lastly I will say prior to buying these machines I had only had Singers...but the last Singer I purchased just didn't work nearly as well as the "old" ones I had used...Just my opinion, which we know what is said about that...lol...
Regards,
Kif
PS I do have an antique Singer 66 in its original cabinet that I inherited from my grandma, it was her mother's...my dear hubby is in the midst of "restoring" it for me..