What would you do re machine repair?
 

My 4 year old Viking Emerald 118 recently stopped working...no power no sound nada. I paid less than $400 and it has served me quite well as a work horse- piecing and quilting everything from coasters to a king size quilt and everything in between.
I dropped it off to have it repaired - just to have someone look at it will cost $129. Now waiting to hear what is wrong and the price to repair. If this was your machine what would be you max price for repairs knowing that you already need to pay $129 before buying another machine? i appreciate hearing your advice. Thank-you!

Does that $129 go towards any repair or maintenance? Or is everything else an additional charge?

The $129 is just to look and diagnosis what is needed to make it work.

Some places will say it's a $129 diagnostic charge, but if you then have it serviced with them, they'll apply the $129 toward the repair. If that's not the case with your machine, and it were me, if I had the money for a new machine, I'd see what kind of deal I could get & ask if they'd give you a discount on your "trade-in" even though it's only good for parts.

You don't say if you took it for repairs to a store that sells new machines, but when I did that with a garage sale purchase, and found out that the motor was shot and none available to replace it other than another 35yr old motor that would be no guarantee,they offered to keep the machine and not charge the diagnostic charge because they could use the machine for parts. So while I was out the purchase price, I didn't have to pay anything to the repair shop. You might suggest that if the verdict is unsatisfactory.

Back to the original question posed another way: what would be the total amount you would pay to have a $400 machine repaired before buying a new machine?

That is a very hard question to ask. You didn't pay that much for the machine. I bought my Bernina 1530 new from an open box and have had no problems with it besides maintenance. I love my baby and I would probably pay up to it's value depending on what was wrong with the machine. My friend had Bernina which need the computer board rebuilt on her 1230 six months ago and that was only a couple of hundred dollars.

Personally, I would not pay more than 25% of replacement cost. In other words, if I could replace the machine for $400 I wouldn't pay more than $100. If it was going to cost me $1000, to replace, then I wouldn't pay more than $250 for repairs.

I recently purchased a used embroidery machine for $250, including a bunch of software, hoops, etc, etc, etc. And immediately had to have it repaired. A comparable used machine would have cost me to purchase around $2000, so forking out another $250 for repairs was a no brainer.

To me $400 works out at $100 per year $2 a week if you've used it every week I would say machine owes you nothing, if it can be fixed for the $129 I would pay it but keep it as a backup machine and start looking for a new one. That's if you can afford to do that. If you can't afford another it's up to you to decide how much you pay to repair.

Thank-you for your response. Yes indeed it has been a work horse and used quite a bit. For the first 6 months of its purchase, when I was out of work, I used it on average 10 hours a day. For the past 3 years since then , I have been working 60 hours a week so I found myself using it about an hour a day each morning in the wee hours and about 8 hours on the weekend. I have gotten my monies worth out of it.
A new and different machine will be plan B if plan A turns out to be anymore than $150 total repair price. I have been thinking about the new jazz and possibly a small grace frame .