EM3000 Sewing & Embroidery Machine

Unfortunatley I cannot rate 'zero' as a rating, but thats what the EM3000 Sewing & Embroidery Machine would be if I could. I am on my third one of these machines... It is utterly useless! It breaks constantly, and as I am an experienced professional seamstress, its certainly not from miss-use. The first one wiped the design as soon as it was downloaded to the unit, thus wouldnt embroider and after considerable hassle was eventually replaced with a new one. This worked the first time, then broke down as soon as it was switched to embroidery mode. I finally persuaded them to pay for the carriage to collect it and repair it, and after several weeks, after which I phoned to get an update, was rudely told there was nothing wrong with it...!!

Obviously, as this was utter nonsense, decided to pay them a visit in person, to discover they hadnt actually bothered to take it out of the packaging to test... The engineer then tested it in front of me, and as stated, it was faulty! Nothing worked properly when she checked it. Apparently they often have this issue with the combi embroidery/domestic machines...

I had a replacement... and guess what? Got it home and its not working properly AGAIN. It wont even do buttonholes properly.

Useless machines, badly and cheaply made, appaling customer service, and a long list of unhappy customers!

Buy from a well-known brand - might cost more, but its worth it in the long run for the service, reliability and ease of use.

Its looks good but doesn't sew properly therefore not recommended.

I bought my EM3000 sewing and embroidery machine from www.joyssewingmachines.co.uk. It looks to be solidly built, and Joy's service warranties appear impressive (untested). It is an embroidery machine that can also be used as a sewing machine. The embroidery area is a good size, and it was way cheaper than the name-brand competition.

There is no needle up/down control in utility sewing, no help with threading, thread-cutting or locking at end of a seam. Clunky, hard-to-turn knobs for stitch-select and stitch-length. Crude tension control. Front-loading, non-transparent bobbin. Switching between embroidery and regular sewing requires you to change the table (which is not easy, as the embroidery table is heavy and has to be lined up just so). The other bad points are the foot (with a screw knob, not a quick-release lever), the stitch length knob (to drop/raise the feed dogs manually), the upper thread tension (manual reset again) and possibly the stitch selector.

This feels like a machine of 15 years ago. I'm sending mine back to the manufacturer and will buy something else.