When should I call for technical support or send my machine in for service?

May 25, 2014

Customer service is our top priority. APQS offers lifetime customer support! Whether you just purchased your first APQS quilting machine, or you’ve owned one for 20 years, our team is here to help.

If you have a question or a concern, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our APQS Forum is a great place for peer support as well. With APQS quilters numbering in the thousands and living all around the globe, chances are good that one of them has also shared your question at one time or another (and may know the answer!)

Our engineers have done a fabulous job of designing a quilting machine that is extremely simple and user friendly when it comes to maintenance or repair. Most problems can be fixed with a phone call to our service team. When a problem requires a repair part, most parts on our machines are as easy to change as plugging in a phone jack.

Before you call

Before you call, you may want to write down what’s happening with your machine and jot down other relevant information, such as:

  • the type of thread you’re using
  • what your project is like
  • what needle size you are using, etc.

In addition, what other symptoms are you experiencing? Does the problem happen all the time or once in a while? Does it happen whether you sew in manual or regulated mode, or does the problem only happen in one mode?

It’s also helpful if you have a portable phone and can be near your machine when you call. In addition, many of the solutions we will present will require you to do some “testing” with your machine. If you’ve already got a project on the frame, we may ask you to do some test sewing on the extra batting and backing on your quilt edge (lay another piece of fabric on top of the batting.) If you don’t have a quilt loaded, it helps to have a small practice piece already loaded when you call, so that we can also test the solutions (especially if your question relates to tension, thread breakage, or skipped stitches).

On all APQS machines you will notice LED lights or indicator lights on the top of the machine, facing the front. Many times when you call in for technical support, we will ask which of these lights are on to help diagnose problems.

We would much rather hear from you when you first encounter a problem, rather than wait until you are really frustrated. Even if you think it may be “operator error”, just give us a call or send us an email.

Scheduling a “spa treatment” for your machine

Your APQS machine is built for years and years of happy quilting! Its industrial gears, bearings, bushings, belt, etc. all give it the durability needed to withstand hard-core daily quilting. Yet it is also simple and easy to care for, even for the “weekend quilter.” Depending on its use, we would like to see your machine in the factory once every 9-10 years, just to keep an eye on gears, bearings, etc. Machines that aren’t used on a daily basis can go even longer than that between “spa treatments”.

We want to give your “baby” the utmost attention it deserves. Therefore, we schedule service by appointment. Since each machine’s service needs are unique, your “appointment” actually encompasses a full week at the factory as we give your machine its “spa treatment.”

  • We ask that your machine arrive by the Friday before your appointment week so that we can unbox it, assemble it, and prepare it for its week at the “spa”.
  • During your appointment week our technicians will thoroughly examine your machine, checking parts for wear and tear as well as examining any parts that have been causing problems. Our team will identify repairs that are both “necessary” as well as “recommended but optional” during the evaluation. However, we will always get your authorization before completing any repairs.
  • Once your machine is repaired, we do thorough “sew off” with it to ensure that everything is working properly before we send your baby back to you.

Most repairs can be accomplished during the appointment week, and then your machine will be back on its way home. Of course, if we encounter any sort of delay when working on your machine, we’ll let you know so that you don’t worry about your baby while it’s away!

To schedule service for your machine, call 800.426.7233. Booking times typically run 5-6 weeks ahead of the current date.

Thanks for purchasing an APQS quilting machine!! We hope you will enjoy your machine and we promise to do our BEST to take care of you and your machine…after all, we’re “family” now!

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