I made a quick video of my Viking Platinum 775, in its current state. I’ve been trying to get it repaired or replaced. My phone number and email address have been lost or misplaced by both the original seller and the repair technician, so far. The one is sure the other can fix it, but since this is how it is behaving after it came back from being repaired, I would feel better about it being replaced. The seller doesn’t have any more at this time, but he says he’ll look for one “just in case”. I feel like we’ve already reached “just in case” myself. The machine has been out of commission since October of 2009, after just 11 hours and 53 minutes of actual sewing time. I’m concerned about sending it all the way across the country again, risking additional damage in transit. I’m also thinking, since a lot of the malfunctioning it is doing is entirely random, that, even if someone gets it “working”, that doesn’t mean it will work the next time I turn it on. What if it works for a day, or a week, and then goes haywire again?
Anyway, I made this video so the repairman would be able to get some idea of what the machine is doing, which is a lot of crazy, random stuff. Those are all those fancy decorative stitches and alphabets I am trying to sew in the video! Remember those from when I first got it? Here’s the old stitch sampler, from when I first got the machine:
And another sampler, from when it came back from repair. It does sew the stitches sometimes:
You can see that, in the video, I’m just getting some helter-skelter sewing instead. I think I chose an “A”, “R”, and “X” for the letters I sewed in the video. They came out like chicken scratch. Here’s the sample from the video:
If I turn the machine on and off, sometimes it will still sew the stitches I select. Other times, it won’t. At random, the needle will go off to the right, or the stitch length and width won’t come out as programmed. It’s just not a whole lot of fun.
I’ve never had such a long, drawn-out ordeal over the repair of a piece of machinery. It wears me out. I know it is just a machine, but I dread having to deal with anyone or anything else in regard to it. Can you imagine taking a small appliance to someone for repair, and having to wait so many months to get it working? Imagine if your washing machine started acting up, and and you had to go do your wash at the laundromat for 8 months. Or if you had to rent a car for 8 months while you waited for yours to be repaired. Imagine if no one, the manufacturer, the salesperson, or the repair technician, acted like that was a big deal. Imagine if it took 2-2 1/2 months just for the company to mail out every part they discovered needed to be replaced. It’s just absurd. I’m glad I bought a backup sewing machine from Sears. I hope it never has any problems.
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[…] as I mentioned in my last post, I have an update about my sewing machine, and it’s quite the soap opera. I spoke with the sewing machine repair technician who worked […]
Hi Elizabeth,
did you ever get your machine fixed?
Hi Norm,
No, unfortunately, I never got my machine repaired. I talked to the repairman on the phone, and he was able to diagnose the problem, after looking at the video. He had replaced one step motor, but both needed to be replaced. He told me faulty step motors had been put into many machines at a particular time, and he had seen them come in before. There was no recall however. The seller agreed to pay the repairman to fix the machine, and I sent the machine to the seller. The seller never picked up the box, and after repeated attempts at delivering it, the Post Office sent it back to me unopened.
After writing several times, the seller told me to send it again, only when I went to repackage the machine, I saw it had been destroyed in transit. Parts had fallen out of the inside, and others cracked right off. The box had no apparent damage, and so it had to have been dropped from a significant height.
A long wait ensued, while the Post Office considered my claim, and they agreed to pay most of the “value” of the machine. They depreciated it as they saw fit, and upon appeal, said that there was basically no way to prove the value of my machine because they wouldn’t accept any possible documentation I could get, other than my receipt. They subtract a set percentage from the amount you paid. Period. Based on nothing other than the list of deduction percentages they have for claims.
So, I wrote to the Department of Consumer Affairs in the seller’s state, and they managed to contact him. He agreed to send me the remainder of the money, but then never sent the check.
Fortunately, I did get most of what I paid, via the Post Office, but whole ordeal took over a year. Plus, I never did get enough money back to replace the machine with an equivalent model. Total nightmare.
The other posts on my issues with this machine can be found here: http://elizabethruffing.com/tag/sewing-machine-repair-problems