The bad news is there was some shipping damage to the machine, which makes me sad. In the seller's photos, the paint was nearly cosmetically perfect. A little discolored from time, but no major dings.
The good news is the seller has very quickly offered to settle via FedEx (it was insured) if I want to, and the better news is that the machine does work and seems to be in very good mechanical condition.
The good news is that I think I'm already bonding with her so I'll probably keep it no matter what. It was only $46 after all.
The bad news is she really needs some deep cleaning, but I can handle that. And she is missing most of her accessories (which I knew, but I thought at least I'd have one original presser foot instead of a generic). But all that stuff can be sourced separately later. Meredith asked if this machine takes the fancy stitch cams. It does. It came with two out of the four originals. There were 8 for the whole series of 6000 Vikings and they will all work.
I said I'd take and share pics of the delivery, so here goes.
So far, so good. No visible damage to the box.
Still OK, but I was beginning to doubt at this point since I could hear rattling.
Double-boxed and bagged, good.
No padding inside the case, bad.
Here you can see the machine is not properly seated in the case/cover. Uh oh.
And once I got the case off, everything tumbled out just like this — with the sideplate detached and banging around.
My heart sank when I saw this:
and sank more with this. The damage is actually worse than it looks in the pics. It's more than just a surface scratch. :-(
Besides the dings and grime, there were little pieces of plastic floating around. You can see one at the top center of the pic and another near the bottom center on the "ledge."
Those pieces came from the damaged case. Here's one side:
And another. I don't really care about the case at all. It would be nicer if it wasn't damaged, but I don't sew with a case and I'm not planning on traveling with this machine. And the "suitcase" style case is what I want anyway (just like mom's!) and I can find one of those at some point.
Up in the sewing room, set up, oiled, and being tested. The sideplate went back on no problem. It's meant to be removable. Just not in transit.
The big glob of thread and lint I pulled out of the bobbin area.
One of the seller's photos. Sigh.
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Testing went well. Every stitch works. Every knob turns freely. Even the lightbulb works.
More good news is that it came with the original manual, which is actually a very helpful manual. I definitely needed to refresh how to thread one of these and wind a bobbin. I love that the last few pages are photos and part numbers of the original included and optional accessories. That will be helpful for future hunts, although my current presser feet seem to fit it just fine and the Viking ankle that Gaylen sent is perfect (thanks again Gaylen!) so I can snap on/off the feet.
So, while I'm very disappointed about the damage, I'm pretty sure I'm keeping it. If FedEx pays for the damage, even better, but I really don't think it's FedEx's fault and I'm not going to lie about it to get money back. I'm more inclined to ask the seller to work out something and file his claim with FedEx himself.
If anyone is counting: D1, Treadle, Featherweight, Kenmore, Viking 6010, 936 serger, BLCS = 7. I call that a good start. LOL!
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On another note, as I said, the patterns arrived yesterday and I've already cut out the pattern paper (not traced!) for one and hope to cut fabric tonight if I can decide which fabric. More details coming soon. It's one of the new blouse patterns, w/o the tuxedo bib, but I'm too lazy to look up the name/number. Maybe I'll sew it using the new/old Viking. I have 7 days to make up my mind per the seller's original terms. I have some reservations about this pattern but I'm withholding judgment until I'm done and can see it on me.
It arrived and it works! Such a shame about the damage though. :( How utterly disappointing! I'm sure in a week, even though the damage will still be visible, you will have forgotten and love it. Much like sewing a wonky collar on a garment. If you otherwise love the garment you stop seeing the flaws. :)
ReplyDeleteAwww, too bad about the damage. But, that's good news about the machine working! Hopefully it will be a good sewing partner for you!
ReplyDeleteAh darnit! That kinda stinks that it got damamged... I'm glad to hear it works!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about the damage, but at least it seems like you're going to love sewing on it! I just bought a machine on Ebay, and your story made me email the seller to tell them to pack extra carefully!
ReplyDeleteI think Brian Sews said he'd had bad luck with buying sewing machines that had to be shipped. He had one arrive in pieces. At least you are handy enough to be able to put it back together. I am looking forward to seeing how it stitches.
ReplyDeleteThat's such a shame--oh how wince at the photos and feel your pain. But you still have a mechanically nice machine for CHEAP! That thing was probably TOL at the time. Margaret Islander sewed on one of these in her earliest video too. Odd that anyone would pack something in a hard plastic "thing" without padding.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sad that your machine was damaged in shipping...but so fun that it is the model that your mom had. I have my grandmother's machine...the one that I learned to sew on. It doesn't work, but I love just having it. It's kind of comforting.
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