Linda

After owning a top of the line home embroidery machine for about 4 years I was getting a lot of requests from friends to do gift items, monogramming, etc. It was becoming more of a job than a hobby and it was getting to be too much for my home machine.  I decided it was time to actually move to the next level and purchase a commercial embroidery machine and not just do this as a hobby. I began researching the internet for commercial machines and reading information from users of different machines.  I attended my first trade show, NNEP in Nashville, in July of 2005.  I had a list of machines that I knew that I wanted to have demonstrated to me while at the show.  I thought this would be a great way to see “everything” that was available in the industry at one time.  I was amazed at how many more machines were available over and above the ones that I had already researched.  I was looking at what I considered the “name brand” machines; Barudan, SWF, Toyota and Tajima.

My husband and I had the list and together began requesting demonstrations of both the hardware and software of the machines on the list.  I was extremely disappointed with the lack of knowledge by the demonstrators and or the lack of willingness to explain their equipment to us.  I knew that if a company sent this quality of people to demonstrate and sell their equipment to an industry show then their customer service concerns were not likely to be good after the sale.

Towards the end of the first day of the show I was becoming frustrated at the prospect of making the large investment into the new commercial machine fearing a lack of support from these large companies. It was then that my husband strolled towards a booth/display for a machine that I had not researched – Prodigi.  As with the other displays their machines were running sample hats, sweatshirts, bags, etc.  The difference here though was key - the people.  They immediately took interest in what our needs were, asking questions about our needs and explaining what the Prodigi equipment and the IDS could offer my new business.  Bob Mattina answered questions for probably hours about the machine and Andrea demonstrated the IDS software with ease.  We returned the next day with more questions and they again graciously spent more time with us.  We felt like we were important to Midwest.

We did make another round of the show giving the other “name brand” companies a second chance.  The second round wasn’t any better than the first. If making the sale wasn’t important to them, I knew customer care after the sale would not be a top priority. 

I made the right decision.  Since purchasing my single head machine with the sequin attachment, the customer support has been what I anticipated from everyone at Midwest.  Any questions I have are answered by knowledgeable people.  The training in St. Louis cleared up a lot of initial confusion on my part.  If I need anything, it is shipped immediately.  I have been extremely pleased with the machine operation and my business is doing well.

I am anticipating growing my business and look forward to purchasing additional equipment.  I won’t need to do research at a trade show or on the internet.  There is only one call I will need to make and that is to Midwest Distributors.

Kyle

Dear Nick,

Matt and I would like to thank You and the rest of the Midwest Distributors family for a very enlightening week of training.  The software classes taught by Ruth, the technical classes taught by James, and Cookie’s help with hooping tips and product availability were greatly appreciated.  Since we have returned to North Central Ohio we have put everything we learned to use.  This has allowed our company to turn a greater profit through speed and efficiency.  We have reduced our run times considerably while turning out better products.  We got exactly what we wanted out of the class.

I definitely want you to know that if you have potential clients that would like to come and take a look at a Prodigi machine or IDS software they are more than welcome to stop in our facility and look at what we have and ask all the questions they want.  We are more than confident with the machine and the software, since we have been to training.

Sincerely,

Kyle

Partner

Mikki

Dear Midwest,

I would like to take a minute to thank James for all of his help. My machine went down and James helped me to diagnose the issue, send out parts and then make sure that I could get them installed. I know that know that James is extremely busy, but he still took the time to make sure that I had support. The over and above, that James did was absolutely the difference between my business turning upside down and me being able to get back up and running. THANK YOU JAMES, and thank you Midwest for having employees like James!

Mikki