Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Our startup business purchased this machine in order to make its first product, a strap for carrying groceries hands free. The paperwork indicated that it was warranted for commercial use, and the marketing indicated it was good for heavy duty stitching. The warranty is true, but the jury's still out on the "heavy duty" aspect. We believe, having read several of the other reviews, that this machine may be shipping with a manufacturing defect. We noticed that out of the box the bobbin thread was exceedingly difficult to raise. We raised it, though, and two of our team used the machine with increasing frustration until finally the bobbin thread seized nearly irretrievably on every stitch. The process of identifying the manufacturing defect was unpleasant. On July 10, while the machine was still under warranty, we called customer service. There were nine callers ahead of us and we waited 45 minutes. The customer service representative made us feel guilty for applying the machine to commercial use, saying, "I would never buy a machine like this to start a business." She said that twice, which is why we feel comfortable quoting her. She also said she'd never use a thread weight thicker than 50, which is a "thin" thread. We expressed our dissatisfaction with her answer, considering that the machine was marketed as "heavy duty" and the warranty covered commercial use. She gave us no sympathy. All we got was a mailing address for the service center, which we could have found on the slip of paper that came with the machine. She wouldn't even tell us what we needed to include with the machine when we sent it in. No, she was done with us, and we were to call the technician ourselves. The technician sounded like he was having a bad day. He gave a flippant answer to our request for an estimate of turn-around time. For your information, you need to send the machine in with its original or equivalently secure packing along with a note explaining what the problem is and whether you're under warranty. We did this and shipped the machine to the service center at our cost. It came back quickly with the technician's note, "Removed burr from bobbin case." It sounds to us like a piece of excess material that should have been removed before final assembly. Either that or this heavy duty machine wears very quickly. Knock on wood, the machine is now working. We are waiting with bated breath to see whether it endures. I strongly recommend against purchasing it, as the manufacturing, customer support, and service that Singer provide are all evidently uncaring. You can likely save money, overall, by buying a more expensive brand and avoiding all this trouble.