quilter2090

I bought a Bernina floor model. It worked perfectly and I really like it. It had less than an hour of sewing on it when I bought it. But, I got it for a reduced price because it was a floor model. The dealer was honest about it being a floor model and the small amount of use on it didn't bother me. It was not sold as new out of the box sewing machine. I am in somewhat the same problem as you. The nearest Bernina dealer to me is just not a good dealer, so even though instead of my Bernina dealer being 50 miles away, I drive in the other direction 100 miles to a different dealer. For an additional $1600, I would drive the 2.5 hours to the other dealer, IF you could.

GrandmaSewNSew

The store also sells both Pfaff and Janomes. I don't have any problems with buying a floor model if that's what I wanted. I'd have to weigh the savings vs the amount of time it could have been on the floor. When I was there last week they said the owner had taken it home to try for a while but that could have been a different machine (assuming they sold that floor model and got another). They also have quite a few sewing clubs and sew up lots of quilts so they even could have been using the machine to do that. I guess I don't know.
I just don't want to deal with them. I'm sure they won't come down $1600 (then I'd still have to pay tax on the balance anyway). But I don't like the way they're doing business and I think what they're doing is somewhat deceitful.
The model I am looking at is an embroidery/sewing machine, the Janome 15000. I've also tried out the Pfaff Creative Sensation, Bernina 780 and the Brother Dreamweaver XE. All of these machines sewed beautifully and had in house repair people.

GrandmaSewNSew

I did the Shop Hop two years ago. It's funny but not all the stores in the hop sell machines and it's probably the worst time to go looking for one! I don't think all of the shops who sell machines participate. Anyway, I hope to be home sewing on a new machine this year instead of doing the hop

lclang

I took the free lessons with my Pfaff and they shot so much info at me that I found it difficult to remember any of it. I bought user manuals with my Babylock and used them, learning much more from them than the slapdash lessons. Actually the manual that came with the Babylock were pretty complete and I could have made out okay with just those. If you are an experienced user you may be able to get along fine with the provided manual, but I don't think you should have to pay for lessons in any case. Most dealers provide them free of charge and if not, why not?? You have the money and you are the customer, insist on what you want.

Scrappy Gram

As a business owner I would like to say I see trying to negotiate the $1000 difference in price, but it is not fair to ask him to lower his price by the $600 which is sales tax. He is obligated by the state to collect sales tax on the transaction, so if you want to save that $600 you will be driving out of state for your machine purchase.

DOTTYMO

Is he offering any more personal classes to get to know the machine. If not then I would buy the cheaper or ask a friend to pop in and ask for a trial run of the same machine and see what he tells or does for her. Only saying th.is as you may want to take the machine to the closest for servicing.

SandySews

By all means I think I would travel to the other shop. You can make the trip, eat lunch out and maybe visit a nice fabric shop and still have money left over to buy more fabric. I travel about 2 1/2 hrs to my dealer who, by the way, sold me one that was a floor model and guess what.... I got a nice discount for taking the floor model.. While it's true a floor model may not have been used very much, it is still "used". If this is a good machine you're buying you won't have to be taking it in very often. I have mine serviced about every two years and I enjoy my day when I do. Good Luck.

Onebyone

Why hand him an $1000 to stick in his pocket. He paid the same price for the machine as the other dealer. Everything you need to know to learn how to use your machine can be found online through groups and forums.

Kayaker26

Sometimes when we feel as if we are being bullied it is because we are. I say make a day trip of to pick up the cheaper machine...go out for a nice lunch...oh and never go back to that shop again!

Grannyh67

I think most of the shops do this to keep from having a machine that has been on the floor for too long. If used for too long then it has to become a demo. personally I think once it has been opened and put on the floor it is a DEMO. I bought a Elna 740 Excellence, was going to buy the Janome 7700 but all they had was a floor model, as I called it, they told me I could have it, I said no I want one out of the box, so I took the Elna, same machine, I will not buy one off the floor unless it is sold to me as a demo and has same guarantee as new one. I bought my HV Diamond as a demo and saved $3000.00 dollars. It had same guarantee as one out of the box.