I bought my Bernina Artista 730e on eBay from a shop going out of business. They included all of the lesson plans they used for the new machine lessons. I had 30 days to check it out. It did everything fine. My local shop is 65 miles away. I have had no problems getting them to service it and they have done upgrades on the machine for free. I have bought other supples from them. But the first time I walked into the store was to get an annual checkup on the Artista. They didn't seem to care where I bought it from. We are retired military so the local shop I bought my Bernina 930 was states away. I have never had any trouble getting service from any shop near where we lived at the time.

I buy most of my quilt needs on line because I can get things for a third of the price that I'd pay in Australia. I've made literally hundreds of on line purchases and have only ever had one problem with a very late delivery by Fedex. My machines I have bought here in Australia. Wouldn't trust Aust.Post to deliver it in one piece. Also our electricity current is different to other countries.

I bought my Brothers Pq1500 from Amazon for $600 instead of $1200-1500 with free shipping and no tax. I went to A local sewing store and test drove the machine and then bought from Amazon. amazon is an authorized Brothers dealer so warranty is good. No problems with machine so far and have had it about 18mo. Since this is a straight stitch machine there is no computer tyo mess up so I can take it to a local repair shop that will not touch a computer in machines. Also I have had good experiences when ordering online either quilting stuff, books or other items. I ususally do not buy fabric on line since I like to feel it and I do not trust the colors on my monitor.

I love online shopping. I do it all the time for fabric, books, notions, etc. However, I have not bought a sewing machine online. I think I would prefer getting it from my local quilt shop. You can go in a test out the machines to see how you like them. However, maybe you are not near any dealers and really need to use the online option. If that's the case, I would go with a reputable dealer, check the better business bureaus, etc. Good luck!

I like Walmart. They ship to house or store pick up (store pick up free shipping) Ships fast and keeps me posted on items.
Best of all they take pay pal.

I agree to shop locally as you get a chance to do hands on with the machines. Someone to take machine back to if something is wrong or if you don't understand how to do something. Best advice is to go prepared with fabric with batting, etc. to try out the machines and see if it does what you need it to do. My first serger I was down at the shop many times going over how to thread the darn machine!

I bought my Brother 1500 s from Amazon. No problems. Price was better than I could get anywhere else. Did have to have it serviced once (operator stupidity but lets not go into that) took it to my local authorized dealer - no problem. If it had not been operator stupidity it would have been covered by the warrantee.

If I was to buy a new machine I would go to a local dealer. I buy fabric on line a lot and have been happiest with Connecting Threads.