The clamoring about bad bobbins started about 5 years ago. The distributors got a big batch of bad bobbins and sent them out to all the suppliers without knowing they were bad. Luckily, people like Cindy Peters and Jenny at Sew Classic caught it very early and started testing all the metal bobbins before selling them. Guess where all those bobbins ended up being sold? At JoAnns, Walmart, and anywhere else you buy the carded bobbins. Quality improved for a few years but evidently there just aren't good ones being made any more, that's why Sew Classic won't sell them. It's not just the notch, the center of the hub can be too high or very rough, and lots of them are so out of round they're unusable. I could just kick myself now for all the old bobbins I used to throw away because I could buy new ones.
Cari