husqvarna-viking-sewing-machines Archives - Ruffing’s

Posted on August 11, 2011July 31, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 2 Comments

Hug Me Cats, Kittens, Slugs, and a sewing machine.

Hello again. Almost an entire month has passed since I’ve updated my blog. The temperatures have been high, and the air hard to breathe. I’ve been inside sewing much of the time, or studying, trying to learn my digital painting program. I’ve taken a few trips to the vet’s, and one trip to Hillsborough, for a barn cat relocation, with Tia and Marie. It’s been a busy month, even if I have been struggling a bit with the weather.

This month, Jack and Miranda Panda both got adopted, during their first adoption event weekend. My mom and I went to visit them just before Jack’s new family took him home. The dad of the family said he has a new recliner for Jack to sleep on, and Miranda Panda’s family said she is settling in well and is a brave girl. Lucky Charm and Trix, from our Mother’s Day rescue trip, are up for adoption now, and both have transformed into healthy, loving kittens.

These are some of the toys that have gone on their own trips to their new homes, this past month. I am making more Hug Me Slugs and Hug Me Kittens too.

I had a sew-less week recently, after sticking my hand into a yellow jacket nest. Seven bites at least. Ouch. I healed amazingly well though. When I was a kid, I would get bad swelling from bites. I must have gained some immunity. I felt lucky to do as well as I did this time. I think yellow jackets are after me every time I feel a pinch, since that happened. I don’t think I will weed the garden until December at least!

I had to take my Viking sewing machine, Sarah, in for cleaning and servicing. I was so nervous about this, given all the trouble I’ve had with the company and the dealers over that period of at least a year, where my Viking Platinum ended up being destroyed. I took a chance and went to a dealer in Raleigh I’d been to before. Sarah seems to be in fine order now. Whew. They even replaced the front panel with a new one, because the old one was bubbling slightly, and they replaced the screw that was missing. The other dealer that couldn’t fix my Platinum, and broke my up/down button, left out a screw on Sarah that had kept the back from closing.

It took a lot of courage for me to leave my machine with anyone. I am still upset when I think of how my Platinum could have been easily fixed, had I just taken it to someone who knew how to fix it in the first place. That sure was an awful experience. I loved that machine, and wish I still had it.

We’ve also been to the vet a lot this month. My one poor kitty had a very bad infection, which needed to be treated surgically. She had to wear a cone around her neck for ten days. She was so good about it, but by the end of ten days, she’d had enough. She seems to be healing well, but now one of our other cats has a bad tooth, just six months after another bad tooth. He is an old fellow, and we hope he will be okay, having more dental work done.

The day after my last post, July 17th, I went along with Tia and Marie to Hillsborough, NC, for a barn cat relocation. I did a photo essay on the process, which you can see and read here on Facebook. It was a big job. I was taking photos the whole time, but Marie was lugging all sorts of heavy things, and Tia and Marie spent at least an hour setting up the relocation cages in a barn stall, on a hot summer day. We wanted to show what an involved process it is, and that it is no easy project.

The farm itself was absolutely beautiful. The two feral cats that are going to be living there are lucky. This is Marie waving goodbye to them, when we left.

Marie hasn’t been feeling well, but has been working so hard. I made the camouflage Hug Me Slug for her. He’s “The Slug of Fortitude”, or “Camo Slug”, or any name she might like to give him later.

This olive slug was a present for Jill, for her birthday. I was glad I picked a color she liked. It turned out that he even matched her place mats.

I will be adding new creatures to our Ruffing’s shop. These three Hug Me Slugs are new, in yellow, copper, and denim blue.

My workroom is overflowing with partially finished toys. I will keep adding more to the shop, and I will try to update my blog again soon, with more.

Please “like” Ruffing’s on Facebook, if you happen to be there.

We will be posting more of our new original one-of-a-kind original cat art dolls in our Ruffing’s shop too.

Posted on August 3, 2010January 9, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Experiments in sewing, good and bad

I wanted to try something different with our next cat art doll, and so I took our original pattern, and a Brown House Dolls’ pattern, and morphed them together. I reduced the size of one, and then lay one over the other on our light box. Then I redrew the whole thing.

It took a lot of fiddling around, and pulling seams apart, and resewing them, to get the new kitty to sit. I wanted her tail to hang downward this time, so she would stand up nicely on a doll stand.

You can’t see her head because she doesn’t have one yet. She’s going to have a fully-sculpted head of paperclay. I glued a dowel into her neck opening, gathered stitching all around it, and pulled it tight. I’ll be passing the doll to Max Bailey, and our next collaboration will begin.

As I mentioned in my last post, my Viking Platinum sewing machine came back unclaimed, from its second trip for repair. After three tries, I finally got in touch with the seller who was going to take care of the repairs. He apologized, said he’d been out of the country again, and asked me to send the machine back, saying he’d help out with the postage. Well, I thought that over for a few days before deciding to give it another try. The only thing is, when I went to put the machine in a new shipping box, I noticed things falling out of it, and off of it. Above is the area over the spool holder, that has the stitch display. It fell right off.

That’s because there is a big chip right in the body of the machine. The back of the machine didn’t fare too well either. Below is the presser foot lever, cracked right off of the body. I packed it well, in its original styrofoam packing, and wrote “fragile” all over the box, which had no signs of damage. I talked to the Post Master about this, and she clued me in that there are no longer any parcel delivery services where packages are hand carried. Everything goes on a conveyor belt. Since the package was never claimed, and was missing for a month, who can guess what it went through.

This machine has made at least six trips, from one side of the country to the other, total, if you count the trip it made from the distribution center to the dealer. I think it just had enough. It was a sturdy machine, but I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be shipped back and forth across the country so many times. I hate to think what is going on in the inside. I hate that I can’t get it replaced, because it is discontinued, and I certainly can’t get it fixed, not in this shape.

I have to wait to see what the Post Office is willing to do, and I still have to contact the seller. This whole thing has been a nightmare. I should never have been asked to send it again for repair anyway. It should have been replaced a long time ago, when it started malfunctioning. The seller could have at least reserved a spare of this model for me, in case he couldn’t fix it, but he sold them all. He’s got a couple of similar, but newer models, but I’ve read they both have known issues. Had the authorized Viking repairman, to whom I initially took it, identified the problem correctly, and had the two faulty step motors just been replaced by the seller, it might have been fine. Instead it is a total mess, and I’ve spent the past ten months trying to get some resolution. Either way, it’s not like I’m going to get the machine I wanted. I’m astounded by how many people there are out there, doing really bad business, individuals, small business, and major corporations. All sizes. I’m just amazed, and I don’t even know what else to say about it.

Posted on July 25, 2010January 9, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 1 Comment

Hug Me, Sock Kitten!

I was trying to get my act together this morning, intending to head out for a while, but nothing came together properly. So, I stayed home and sewed up this sock kitten! I took some tips from the two sock doll books I have by Daniel, which are great books for anyone wanting to experiment with free-form toy creation. It’s fun, like making balloon animals. I say that not remembering if I’ve ever made balloon animals, but what they have in common is the idea of taking a tube shape and seeing where you can go with it.

I was debating over adding the fleece heart, but once I’d thought of it, I felt I needed to give him one. You can’t go back on giving someone a heart.

I took him outside to photograph him, and of course, he ran right up a tree.

Once I got him back inside, he stretched out for a nap, taunting all the slugs a little first, by waving his paws around. They haven’t got any appendages, and so, he was doing some showing off.

I think I will make some more kittens, and call them “Hug Me! Kittens”. This sock kitten is in my Etsy shop.

My own, much larger kitten helped me with another project, removing the overly-scratched carpet from the legs of our cat gym. The plan is to cover the legs with new carpeting and sisal rope. The legs were looking very disreputable. This is only a human opinion.

The feline consensus of opinion was that they looked perfect, as they were. Here is one of the mournful looks I was given after removing the beloved carpeting. She got over it quickly and found something else to do. She’ll be happy when she sees the new carpeting and the sisal rope. I was joking with my mom, saying the cats would be just as happy if I threw the rope and a piece of carpet on the floor. But that wouldn’t look nice. Again, just a human opinion.

One sorry note for the week…my Viking sewing machine made a return trip from California, where it went for repair, having never been claimed at the Post Office. I have no idea why the seller had his repair technician call me to go over the repairs, and then sent me the address to which he wanted me to ship my machine, and then never picked it up. I’ve received no reply, so far, if indeed I ever will. I’ve had issues before, as you may have already read on my blog, and I’ve had him not answer for a long time, because he’s been in and out of the country. But you would think someone would be there to claim packages at least. Not looking good. Not that it has been looking good, at all, ever, but that is the current status on my Viking sewing machine nightmare. I’ve heard from people who have had similar problems. I don’t know what to say other than I’ll never be getting a Viking sewing machine again.

I’m still using my Kenmore, pictured above, that I got as a spare. It’s been behaving very well. Once I have some extra money, I’ll ask around some more, to see if I can find someone honest who might be able to replace the faulty and broken parts on my Viking. A friend has suggested a Viking Funeral for the machine, but I’ll wait to see what develops.

Posted on May 29, 2010June 7, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 20 Comments

My new Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine lowdown

Husqvarna Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine and case

I have an update on my Husqvarna Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine repair saga.

But first, I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend. Jude made a cute and curious new friend.

Jude had company today. He’s befriended an anole. They’ve been staring at each other for over an hour. The anole is showing off here, puffing out his red pouch under his chin. They were fascinated by each other. Just like cats do, when one gets tired and starts to close his eyes, the other closes his eyes too.

That doesn’t last long though. They are soon back to staring at each other, tilting their heads this way and that, to take in every angle. They seem to be enjoying themselves, getting to know each other, even if it is through a windowpane.

We have a patriotic display of color by the side of our house. The blue lace-cap hydrangeas are in bloom, with all the red and white petunias I have to plant in our hanging baskets. Very appropriate timing, for Memorial Day.

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I have an update about my Husqvarna Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine, and it’s quite the soap opera.

I spoke with the sewing machine repair technician who worked on my Viking Platinum 775, when I sent it across the country to be repaired. He is in CA. I am in NC.

He thinks he can get it fixed, and so I’m planning to send it to coast-to-coast again. He filled me in on a lot of missing information in regard to my sewing machine repair saga.

This is the lowdown, according to him…The guy who sold me the machine did in fact used to be an authorized Viking dealer, as we already heard.

Before he retired, he bought a million dollars worth of sewing machines, legally. They were all new. He put them in a warehouse, intending to sell them on the Internet, at lower prices than the other dealers, which Viking forbids. The only punishment Viking has, if a dealer does this, is to take away his or her dealership. But, this dealer retired. So, that didn’t effect him.

For the past three years, he has been selling the machines online. Husvarna Viking knows about this, even though they wouldn’t tell me that. They can’t stop him because he isn’t breaking the law.

The people I contacted at Husqvarna Viking, when I first had trouble and contacted them for assistance, told me my machine might have been stolen. Later, they told the Viking dealer I went to here in NC, that the online seller I bought the Husqvarna Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine from had been an authorized dealer, but he retired. Either way, they wouldn’t honor their factory warranty on my machine. I don’t know if they told the local dealer the whole story.

According to the repair technician in CA, because this seller was selling Viking sewing machines online after he retired, Viking rewrote all its dealership contracts, to stop anyone else from doing this in the future, retiring and continuing to sell machines online.

The other dealers who have found out about him selling Husqvarna Viking sewing machines on the Internet, have been very angry about it. Husqvarna Viking sewing machine retail prices are not listed on their web site, and so dealers can set their prices, without worrying too much about being undercut by competition.

My Husqvarna Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine was, in short, bought legally, by an authorized (at the time) dealer, fair and square. It was sold to me, after the dealer retired, and after the model was discontinued, when other authorized dealers had the same machine on closeout sale. So he wasn’t really undercutting anyone at the time.

My Husqvarna Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine itself has two step motors. One was replaced the last time I sent it to CA, because it was faulty. That was the one causing the machine to sew backwards, the feed step motor.

The repair technician said that, judging from my video, it looks like the second step motor is bad too. That would be the one making the needle swing off in the wrong directions.

It seems that, according to the repairman I spoke with, at the time my machine was made, there were a bunch of bad step motors made, by whatever company makes them, and they were put into lots of machines across the country. The repairman used to see one bad step motor a year, and suddenly he started getting in a couple per month.

He said he can replace the second step motor for me, and the button patch, which he thinks has a severed connection. If I leave a thorough note, they can take care of the other issues too, since there are a lot of little issues. I asked him if the seller would be paying for this, and he said yes.

The repair technician confirmed that this is a new machine, but it was in a warehouse. He said it is probably old, but according to the mailing label, it was only about a year old when it was sold to me, which seems like an average turn-around time to me.

I’m sure the repair tech doesn’t like this seller selling the machines online either. He told me to never buy one off the Internet, “buyer beware.” He was very nice, and filled in the missing information for me.

But, honestly, if the Husqvarna Viking company had just been truthful with me, instead of implying I was dealing with a criminal, I would have just sent the machine back to the seller to have it repaired it in the first place, instead of taking it to an authorized dealer here, who wanted to charge me over $700 to replace different parts entirely, not the two faulty step motors, which were the real problem.

Maybe I would have a working machine by now, instead of having to wait for months more.

My Husqvarna Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine has been broken since October 2009!

It is additionally offensive to me that the faulty step motor issue has to be known to the company as well, and yet, even though the local dealer had another Viking Platinum sewing machine in his repair shop, at the very same time as mine, also sewing backwards, he had no idea what was causing the problem. Why wasn’t he told about the step motor issues?

I still maintain that, if Husqvarna Viking would just sell machines directly, in a way that is fair to consumers, as I was suggesting in one of my previous posts, none of this cloak-and-dagger secret nonsense would have happened. This is all because they have built up a society of dealerships, which, in my opinion, puts buyers at the mercy of dealers, and allows for price gouging.

Apple does just fine, selling directly online and in their stores, and also selling through authorized dealers. It seems archaic now to treat Internet sales as something to avoid at all costs. Tell that to Amazon.

And Viking knew they sold this man sewing machines, which they knew weren’t stolen or used. They could have checked for me. They could have looked up the serial number I gave them. I feel they wouldn’t honor their warranty on my machine because they wanted to punish me for buying it over the Internet, and they wanted to punish the seller, indirectly, because what he is doing is now against their dealership rules. They should never take that out on someone who bought one of their sewing machines.

A warranty should be on a machine, if it is new, with its serial number and bar code right on the box, which I’m sure they can trace. If they can’t, they should fix their system so they can. But, I bet they can. The seller, I hope, will be honoring his personal warranty on the machine, but I, of course, have to ship it to CA, when, under normal circumstances, I would be able to transfer the warranty to another dealer.

Anyway…I’m sure it will take another 2 to 2 1/2 months to get Viking to send the step motor and the buttons to the repairman. Then, we can just hope it works, because if anything else is broken on it, it will take longer.

Even if I’d bought this very same Husqvarna Viking Platinum 775 sewing machine from a currently authorized dealer, it would have had bad step motors. At least the seller should be paying for them to be replaced. I would have been at the mercy of whatever dealer I’d bought this machine from, and we’ve already seen what happened with the last dealer I went to.

So, as I said…what a soap opera!

Update: None of this worked out. The online seller didn’t pick up my box, and it got sent back through the mail, where the sewing machine was broken. It was obvious someone dropped it from a significant height. The seller said he never got a notice asking him to pick it up. I had to file an insurance claim and turn the machine in to the Post Office. The Post Office depreciated the value of my sewing machine, which seems arbitrary, since they have no way to know its value. So, my sewing machine, that I so carefully picked out, and liked so much, is gone and I am very unhappy.