Yes. The place I take my machine does require a deposit.

I took a Singer in for a replacement part, man said he would call when it would be ready. 10 years later, he hasn't called. Not that I need it. I hope he has recycled it. No deposit required.

DITTO !!

I have had all three of mine serviced & they asked for deposits as well.

strange some do some don't

I haven't had a sewing machine in for repair so I can't comment on that. However, took in a 52 inch LCD TV for repair and they charged me a $250 deposit.

I can understand why they ask for a deposit. We have a small snowmobile repair shop, and I can't tell you how many machines we end up with at the end of the year that the people haven't paid their bill, which means they haven't picked up their machine. We have to buy the parts needed to fix it, but then they don't want, or have the money to pay us. We are out the money, and time we put into their mahcine.
I can see both sides of the story.

Again I have to ditto on some comments...If you are in the quilting business tell me your not going to ask for partial pymt for supplies...?
Are you going to put time, energy and money into repairing a quilt or making a quilt in hopes the person returns and pays in full after you've put everything into the quilt.
You all say they have my machine...it's worth tons of money they can sell it...not so simple...notice has to go out to you, a certain no of days/mths have to pass before they can dispose of your machine...and they have to hope to sell it somewhere and hope to get a good price, take the time to list or pay for listing etc......along with all the other stuff they are trying to fix...
I guess it all boils down to Big States like CA, NY, CA want deposits and small towns are trusting...

Sounds like the owner has no room to store them, and hopes not to end up with them (Look at the economy)to me.

Not so sure some of the machines are a "viable piece of merchandise"...

:shock: they are to me :D :D
"Not so sure some of the machines are a "viable piece of merchandise"...

another thing I noticed as I worked my way through the dealers (looking to add to the pack :) is that none of them really take trade ins. I was looking for a used machine...

To my point...dealers do not deal in used machines....nor do they likely have the time/desire to do ebay or CL...

what do dealers do with machines that they trade if one upgrades under a buy back guarantee?

I haven't been asked for a deposit, but it wouldn't bother me. As said before pay now or later. It's all for the same cause.

I take my Bernina in and never have been asked for a deposit. Wouldn't bother me if they did, I won't forget to go pick it up.

There are used machines and there are used machines...a used upper level machine is salable...many of the machines taken in for repair are not in that category, but a repair shop cannot have a policy of deposit for one machine and not another. I think this is like someone else said...very much dependent on where you live. But why would anyone care if there was a deposit, it would be taken off the price of the repair anyway.

I don't know if the reason for asking for the deposit is the same, but a TV repair shop owner that was a good friend of mine started asking for deposits for TV repair when years went by and folks didn't pick up the TV's. He had to stor them and finally get rid of them and it was a HUGE expense
to him with all the charges HE had to pay to get rid of the unwanted items. This may be the same for the sewing machine repair man....

That's the same thing I went through here in Macon. I dropped my machine off and they were going to charge me $25.00 to have the repair guy take the embroidery unit with him. That wouldn't have been applied to any service work, it was just for him taking the unit with the machine.

I brought it back home and took it to the dealer I bought it from in Kentucky when we went up there for a visit. They never charge for the service man to take the embroidery unit.

Hey, we have service people here in NY who charge a fee just for coming out to your hse to give an est. Anywhere from 60-80 has to be pd in advance even if you don't use their service after you get the est. to fix the object...

The great guy who services my machine has a deposit up front. I asked him why, thinking like you that there is no way I would abandon my $1000 machine. Not only did he charge a deposit, he had a contract that said that if I didn't pick up my machine within 30 calendar days after he notified me by mail that my machine was ready he was free to sell it. He said he would telephone first but if after 3 or 4 calls, all he got was a machine or no answer, then he'd mail a letter and the time period would commence.

He took me to his storage room. Turns out that a fair number of people really do abandon their sewing machines. I was flabbergasted. He had 10 or more sewing machines in there that customers had abandoned and they weren't all cheap ones, either. He'd accepted them before he instituted contracts, so he felt he couldn't sell them or give them away. All he could do was let them take up room in his storage area.

He said that people still abandoned their machines at least a couple times a year, but with the deposit and the ability to sell them to recoup his costs, it didn't bother him so much.

I recently was given a machine to pass on to a friend. When I took my embroidery machine in to the shop to get the needle threader repaired (cost me $10.00 and was done in a matter of minutes... no labor charge!), the repairman told me it would cost about $100.00 to tune the old machine. I bet the machine wouldn't get $75.00 at a garage sale. He told me it would make better sense to spend a few dollars more and just get a brand-new simple machine. He said he would do a $15.00 trade-in on the old machine because he could use it for parts.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if he required a deposit on repairs when the repairs are worth more than the machines. If he doesn't, then he should definitely make sure that he gets a signature that makes him the owner of the machine if not paid for within a certain amount of time.

Never heard of it ! My dealer doesn't require it - don't see why they would ask, unless you have NOT been a customer of theirs before, or it's an old machine :roll:

I would not take my machine to someone I was not familiar with so therefore that should take care of the deposit policy. I also have never shopped or dealt with a dealer that doesn't take trade ins. If they are areputable dealer ther should be no question that they take trades. Not everyone can afford a new machine and many older or used machines are better than new ones.

If your repair person has gotten burned in the past it's not unheard of.- they may have had no shows, very overdue pick ups or people who wiggle out of payment by canceling a check or card payment. We have shops near us honest and not. Those who are honest have a sign posted of a minimum bench fee for looking at a machine if they choose to enforce it.That said they also have made it clear if they can't fix it they don't charge. One of our local shops has done this for 2 generations and have on many occations told a customer who isn't paying cash to just stop back in when they have it so the charges for running the card isn't more then the cost of the work. We restore machines and refer people to businesses like that instead of taking their work.