they are not the same company, but brother does sell them their machines, and babylock puts there name on them and markets them differently, they do usually have a few differences, and I do think the babylocks are made a little better. With embroidery brother has the disney features and also has the my custom stitch feature on their machines. this feature can't be found on the babylocks. Also the babylock embroidery machines I think have nancy ziemen designs on theirs instead of disney. I know the babylock quest I think is a pfaff machine so they do get their machines from other companies as well, but the do get a lot of their machines from brother. I haven't heard of too many people having problems with their babylocks, maybe you just got a defective one from the factory. Happens in all brands. I have had my babylock espire which is a brother machine for 2 1/2 years and absolutely love it. Has never given me any problems.