Back in the summer (August), my sewing machine died again. I?d spent a fair bit repairing it over the last few years (was a pretty good computerised model) and was thinking I should really buy a new one, so I rang the company I bought it from, who had always done my repairs. I wish I?d googled them first, as they had always been great with me, but have dreadful reviews online and a couple of watchdog programmes about them. Anyway, he suggested I pop in with it so they could take a look. Did so, he took one look and said the binding gear had gone and it would be a big repair, so I said I didn?t want it repaired in that case and would buy a new one. He then suggested that they take the machine as a part exchange and suggested a quite expensive machine. I couldn?t afford it normally, but with the part exchange it fell basically within my budget, so I paid a deposit and left the old one with them. Then they said that I would need to pay the full price up front, and then they would give me what they got for selling the old one (about £300 they claimed), which isn?t quite what I agreed to, as it leaves all the risk with me, but they already had my deposit so I kind of went with it, a bit grumpily though. I got home, checked online, and saw that the expensive one was actually on sale on their website, for 20% below what was on my order paperwork, so I rang up to say that I hoped I would be getting that discount. They said yes, all discounts would be applied when I paid the balance.
I went in a couple of weeks later to pay for it (was difficult as I had to save up), and got a long spiel about how expensive the old machine had been to repair and how they wouldn?t be able to give me the discount because of this. I thought this was basically rubbish, and said to him that they shouldn?t have repaired it then if it was going to cost that much to repair and should at the very least have called me first, especially as they were now saying they thought they could get about £250 for it. But got basically bullied into paying full whack (£700) for a machine they were selling for £560 and other online sellers were selling for considerably less (although it?s a great machine and I have no problems with it at all).
Anyway, heard nothing for ages, old machine was not on the website as promised, and so after a couple of months I emailed and was told that it cost loads to fix but they would sell it as soon as they could, and would probably get about £200 for it. Erm what? I put quite clearly why I felt aggrieved and in the end they offered me the machine back and a £100 refund, which I thought was ok, as I could probably sell the old one for £100 or so as it?s still a really good machine with lots of features. Get old machine home and don?t get around to checking it for a month (wasn?t worried as all their repairs have been exemplary). Did a thorough test. Bloody thing doesn?t work properly. Stitches skipping, embroidery stitches particularly and they are one of the best selling points of the machine. Even if I wanted to give it to someone, it doesn?t work well enough for it to be any use. Can?t even sew a decent straight line.
So I emailed them, this is just before Christmas. No response. Emailed again between Chistmas and new year. No response. Emailed again last week. No response. What do I do next? It?s such a complicated saga, but essentially, leaving aside the misselling and general horridness, I think it boils down to
?They repaired old machine
?Old machine does not work
?They have a duty to do repair properly
I half want to write this off as a dreadful learning experience, but I?m so angry about it and could actually really do with the money I would get selling the old one. Do I have a leg to stand on? Should I just try and forget about it and enjoy my lovely sewing machine (which is very lovely)?