First, congratulations on deciding which machine to purchase. I, personally, have a Bernina 830 and I have to say I love, love, love it. When I purchased it, I took lessons to learn everything about it. I also have an excellent dealer. He worked in the Bernina factory for years and he helped design the machine. My machine is super heavy as it is NOT plastic. OK, I'll get off my soapbox! LOL
What I wanted to suggest is you may have the incorrect stabilizer, or your design is too dense for the fabric. When they do the stitch outs of designs in the shop, normally they'll use a heavy stable fabric and not too dense design. So theirs comes out perfect. Yours will too, after you have experimented with it. Maybe your fabric wasn't tight enough in the hoop, or too tight. Lots of different things could have been going on. Read all you can online about embroidering on a machine. First thing you know, you'll be a pro. Good luck, and sorry I went on so long.

(((I would stay away from an new Bernina....lots of trouble with them)))

I would disagree with this comment , I have three Bernina's and love each one of them
all of mine are embroidery machines and all have given me wonderful hours of sewing ,
yes the big 830 took a little learning because it is a different away of sewing it does patterns
and large sized embroideries , it can combine designs enlarge, shrink them ,curve letters spell them out down
as well as across . and that is only touching on a few o the features the 830 has ,the quality is as good as the first one I brought 25 years ago . Cathy

Thank you all for the advice and suggestions about why my embroidery to date has been a gggrrrrr moment however on a positive note the ordinary sewing mode is great. Perfect 1/4 seams every time - yay!

I have had my Janome less than a year and I love it. It does everything I want it to plus more. The one drawback that I have found is taking it to retreats. It is heavy and I have a hard time carrying it. But I asked my self if I would have still bought it and the answer is yes. It is a dream of a machine.

I love everything Husqvarna, but I have very little faith in Bernina. Several friends of mine spent all that money on their machines and have had nothing but problems. No experience with the other

I've had them all. Each has it's strong points and weaknesses. I found that I wasn't that interested in embroidery and the changing to embroidery mode was a pain in the neck. So through several years of buy-try-and trade-ins, I wound up with a dedicated Janome embroidery ( used mostly for labels and a few baby things ) and the Bernina 820 ( 830 minus embroidery). This works for me but I'm not convinced it would be right for anyone else. I do feel that the more complex machines have more problems and it definitely takes more time to learn how use all those bells and whistles. They can also weigh as much as 47 pounds so they aren't what you would call portable.
Are there any big quilt shows in your area? That can be a great place to test drive a variety of machines.

My favorite machine is the Bernina. I did have an 830 and it had multiple problems. My dealer and his staff were exceptional in helping me and servicing it but when the 880 came out, the dealer gave me an amazing deal and I took it!! The 880 is very similar to the 830 but they've tweaked the embroidery and it's a dream to embroider, sew and quilt on. I'm hooked on embroidery now....so much to do!:) And I'm enjoying every minute.

I have a Husqvarna Designer I and I love it. I also have the Brother 400 sewing and embroidery machine
and really like it too but the embroidery hoop is not big enough for some of my designs.