QUILT PATCH

My wife had to bring in her Bernina 880 to have it serviced. Because she didn't purchase it at the Quilt Patch, she was charged extra fees to have her machine repaired. After Fred, the certified Bernina sewing machine repair-man, worked on her machine, we brought it home. Fred, very rudely told my wife that he had to work on the needle threader head to remove all of the lint that had built up, causing the automatic needle threader function to malfunction. The first time, since the repair, that the machine was used, 2 parts of the threader head popped off the machine. We then brought my wife's machine back to the quilt patch, very upset, and told them what happened. They denied that Fred's "repair" had caused the parts to pop off, and said it must have been caused by something that my wife did wrong; hardly possible, as the only thing that my wife did was to press the button that initiates the threading cycle. Also note, that Fred had just worked on the parts that popped off. Fred put the threader head back on, and once again, we took the machine home. The owner of the shop was very rude and cold to us when we picked up my wife's machine for the second time. After spending $255 for "repairs" the stitching was too tight, and distorted the fabric that was being sewn. So after spending money to service this sewing machine, it has more problems than it originally had, and we were treated rudely. Now we are taking her machine to a second repairman to fix the problems that resulted from this repair job. We will never use this shop again! ***After the first time that we picked up the machine, the sewing actually looked good. It wasn't until Fred put the needle threader head back on the machine that the stitching became distorted. So something must have gone wrong with the second repair. We are choosing to take the machine to another certified Bernina repairman, as we no longer have confidence with the work done at the Quilt Patch.

I really want to love the Quilt Patch. Most of the people who work there are very nice and helpful, and they have a lot of fabric. However, my last experience with a woman who was apparently the owner of the store was horrible. Yes, she is super knowledgeable, a quilting queen. I am a complete novice, who was shopping for fabric and hoping to get some advice on sewing rectangles using two triangles. She was so patronizing, she managed to put me down about 10 times in a space of 15 minutes. The coup de gras was when I then tried to buy a fat quarter for $3.05 using a credit card. She literally looked down her nose at me with a smirk on her face and at first just left my hand hanging there in mid-air with the card. I asked her if there was a minimum purchase for a credit card and she said "you don't have cash for that little an amount?" I was so embarrassed, but I rummaged around in my purse and only managed to find $2 (i have two kids who usually clean me out of cash, and also, I have a "rewards" card that gives me cash back on my purchases, so I usually use it for everything, even if I'm buying one soda at the 7-11). She took the card reluctantly, so I said (without a tone), it would be helpful if you had one of those little signs that says there is a minimum for credit card purchases. She lashed back with "that's illegal." I commented that I had seen it done by other businesses, and she said, well, they're breaking the law with the credit card company. I don't even know what that means -- that it's against the credit card contract? Anyway, instead their policy is to bully the customer. Nice. I thought maybe I was just being overly sensitive about her treatment of me, however, my sister who lives out-of-state said she has been there 3 times and got a similar vibe. There is another quilt store near-by (The Quilter's Studio) so I am done with the Quilt Patch.

It went fine. I dropped off the machine and they finished the repair in a timely manner. They are accurate and precise.

They are very good. The technician is excellent.

My husband dropped off my sewing machine for repair and was told it would put on the schedule to be looked at 2 days later and that I would receive a phone call from the technician. The woman showed my husband where my name was written in the "schedule". 3 days later (friday) I had not heard anything so I called and was told it had not been looked at and would be looked at first thing Monday morning and the technician would call me. Monday came and went, Tuesday we had an earthquake and I could not call, then Wednesday I called and the woman told me she could not find my machine, the technician was not in today, and she was not sure if he would be in tomorrow. I kindly told her that she needed to locate my machine because I would be picking it up later that day and taking it somewhere else. She managed to locate it a couple minutes later on a shelf. The technician called about 15 minutes after I talked with the woman at the store and said my machine was first on the list to be looked at tomorrow. He said they do not use a schedule (even though this is what my husband was told upon dropping it off) and they look at the machines on a first-come, first-serve basis. He stated that the employees upstairs in the quilt shop are "completely separate" from the repair shop downstairs. However, at no point was I given a number for the repair shop....no other option was ever given to me except to communicate with the quilt shop ladies, who never gave me an honest answer about my machine or the timeline for it. This seems like a fine enough place to get fabric and sewing/quilting materials, but I would not take a machine there for repair.