I'm so glad that you have resolved your issues so successfully, oh the fun you and your new machine will have.
Isn't wonderful to have a repair person you can trust/connect on? My car repairman was a great guy. I have a great sewing machine guy now that is not the rep for my brand -- but that's ok, it's not on warranty and he can deal with it just fine and tell me the truth and still appreciate my vintage machine too.
We deserve quality tools. I'm looking at it now as that I spend more time with my sewing machine now than with my car which in addition to acquisition cost requires maintenance and repairs as well as gas, plus taxes and insurance. A long arm is really looking cheap to me in those terms, especially when I would definitely spend more time with my machine than my car...