It is definitely an advantage to buy locally. You will get much better service. After all the time he spent demonstrating the machine, I bet you could work out a deal with him without holding anything over his head. Perhaps shop around other dealers in US. I think most dealers dont like competing with each other for the same machine
. Also they may have rules to not sell out of their territory. You may want to look at other machines. The BabyLock Crescendo is a wonderful quilting machine. From Bernina owners I know, they say the BSR isnt all that great or needed after awhile. The one thing I dont like about Bernina other than their accessories are outrageous is they tend to come out with a new machine instead of making improvements on existing machines. I had one that was the newest and greatest and was nothing but trouble. It was soon discontinued and I was stuck with a machine that could no longer be serviced and was nearly worthless for a trade in. Switched over to Janome and Baby Lock. Bernina has always been known as reputable and superior, but there are many more quality machines out there now. Shop around then use that as leverage with the Bernina dealer. He cant compete with foreign sales but can with other local dealers.
Last edited by snipforfun; 10-07-2013 at 01:16 AM.