Try your local TV network. They usually love doing these *exposes* and more times than not, the merchant quickly takes care of the situation properly and promptly instead of turning nasty and blaming it on the customer.

Be sure to call your state attorney general. They could probably resolve this without you having to retain an attorney.

Have you taken photos of the condition of the machine you did get back that was not cleaned. If possible use a dated camera or have a digital calendar clock in the photo also. Be sure to get good shots of the inside of the machine to show the dust and lint and lack of oil. A good dated photo can speak volumes. Document now, if you haven't, all contacts you had with these people and every word that was said. After a few weeks, those things are hard to remember. Accuracy counts.

No business should ever act like they did, but especially not regarding sewing machines!

Good luck.

This, I forgot to say, was a National chain that helps after a fire/disaster for clean-up.
To fix the correct problem was under $200.
I will use the phone call method again as needed.

Just sounds like a couple of crooks.

I am very sorry this happened to you. It is really bad when people take advantage of older persons. I hope it turns out good for you and you get your machine back.

Make sure you tell people what happened and where. Word of mouth can build up a business. It can also destroy one.

I had a bad experince with serger repair. I called Babylock and explaimed it to them. THEY called the repairman and threatened to pull their authorization from him so that he could not repair Babylock machines. My serger was repaired very quickly after that. I never took it there again.

Be sure you have a repairman verify that your machine was not cleaned. Otherwise, it becomes a one on one dilemna and might not hold up in court.

I believe a person has more leverage when a credit card is used to pay the bill, which is why we pay for almost everything with a credit card