Startup Advise...

[DancingBay]

I'm not afraid of a challenge and I am willing to keep learning and trying new things.

[YDCustom]

Alisa,
There was an excellent article in the most recent Stitches magazine about starting an embroidery business. If you're interested, I'd be happy to xerox it and mail it along to you. Probably there's someone else here who could scan and e-mail but I don't have a scanner at work.

[signman]

If you can point out the name of the article, she can go right to it and read it...

http://www.asipublications.com/Stitches/#

[DancingBay]

I can search the database. What month and exact name of the article. A lot easier than copying it an mailing it to me.

[NewToEmb]

I was reading this old post string from August about buying a business, buying a 2007 machine or a 2004 machine and the pricing. I just received pricing for a Bravo of about $8500 and XTS at about $11,500 which is their ISS show pricing. I am confused about the Bravo vs XTS. Can someone tell me what the XTS does that the Bravo doesn't? If a new machine has a 5 year warranty and is sold to someone else, why isn't the warranty transferable? Couldn't Melco charge for a service call and verify the machine is in good working order? Afterall, the original price already includes the warranty cost. Even car manufacturers honor their warranties to new owners.

[Knehmer]

The warranty isn't transferable because Melco says so [img]smile.gif[/img] Quite frankly, I would imagine it's somewhat of a selling tool for Melco to keep people from buying used machines if they can. It is my experience that most car manufacturers do not honor the warranty--if the warranty is extended, it is quite often the car dealer doing that.

[Rod or Sharon]

Melco will sell an extended warranty for their machines. The machine will have to be checked out by a certified Melco technician. If the machine is found "not" be in top notch running condition, the tech will report to Melco and it will have to be brought up to spec prior to Melco allowing an extended warranty to be applied to that machine.

Melco discontinued transferring the remainder of any warranty period some time ago. The decision to do this was not based on trying to discourage folks from buying a used machine vs a new machine. True to the fact, you, as the purchaser of a used machine, must factor in the overall difference in cost between paying for the registration and service fees plus buying an extended warranty vs buying a new machine. For administration purposes, transferring warranties and keeping track of all the problems just became extremely troublesome. The side effect, of course, did result in folks buying a used machine having to factor in service calls, registration fees and the extended warranty costs. But, those costs are negotiable between the parties. Even when buying a new car, just as soon as you drive it off the lot, you have just lost a bundle if you try to sell or trade it back in.....that is just the way it is....

Believe me when I say that through-out my travels over the past several years, Sharon and I have seen some badly abused machines. These machines did not have "defective parts" on them that any warranty would cover, they were just plain dirty with very poor lubrication practices applied to them.

Now the differences between the Bravo vs the XTS amounts to "bells and whistles". There are numerous differences, machine speeds, hoop size limitation for both caps and flat hooping, etc, etc, etc. It is no different than when buying the Design Shop software between DS Lite, DS, DS Pro or DS Pro+. As you add the "bells and whistles" in the upper levels, the cost will go up. The Bravo is intended to compete as an entry level machine within todays market. It does far exceed the overall capability of what the top of the line "home embroidery" machines on the market today offer, at a competitive price.

Rod Springer
Amaya Tech & Trainer