Juki is Releasing A New Longarm – Miyabi (雅) J-350QVP

The Juki Miyabi J-350QVP is a machine built for creative quilters who strive for high quality, professionalism and an abundance of features enriched to help you create your perfect vision. The Miyabi J-350QVP will be released in a standup and sitdown version.

Specifications:

New Features on the Miyabi J-350QVP:

Features of Miyabi J-350QVP:

Four Stitch Modes:

• Cruise: Free-motion quilting with JSS control
• Precise: Free-motion quilting with JSS control when using a quilting ruler
• Baste: Tacking or basting with JSS control
• Manual: Free-motion quilting without JSS control

Solid Steel Heavy Duty Frame:

Optional Accessories:

The Bad:

This release serves to belay the fears of current Juki TL-2200QVP Longarm owners that Juki was going to stop manufacturing Longarm Quilting machines.  There was concern that with the support and design failures of the Juki TL-2200QVP Juki would would just let the product drop from their line. The release of a new longarm quilter hopefully means that support and accessory development will continue for previous models. Juki has continued to fail to understand the needs of this very niche segment of the sewing market. They are of the opinion that their strong dominance in the industrial market translates to understanding the needs of longarm quilters. Sadly I am here to say it does not, and it is precisely because of that market dominance this a company has the financial resources to do better by their customers. I for one am unwilling to make excuses for their failures.  They have repeatedly dismissed input from their user base. Consistently telling customers that issues are based on the users lack skill when using the machine. When that excuse doesn’t work, they lay the fault at the feet of their dealers. As a result of this blame-shifting Juki undermines their dealers and causing users do not know who to trust or go to for assistance.

Lack of Community Support:

Juki makes little effort to cultivate their community of customers. They provide only the barest of poorly produced online training videos. They fail to show up at quilting shows they advertise they will be attending on their website.  They charge customers upwards of $1000 plus travel to attend training sessions in which they advise customers to go to competitor websites to find online learning resources.  They refuse to participate in the large vibrant Juki Longarm Facebook group to provide support or resources This is despite the fact that members of the admin team have repeatedly asked. Due to this we finally removed most of the employees of Juki America from the group.  This action was precipitated when their bearly out of short pants “creative director” told two admins in an online chat that Juki doesn’t look at the group as a way to help their customers, only a resource to sell more stuff.

Machine Vibration and Damper Kit Issues:

Sadly many machine owners experience a “design flaw”  that causes their machine to vibrate so much that doing pantograph work is almost impossible and even just doing freehand quilting can be a chore. In our Juki facebook group, we have even had users who have robotics claim that the vibration is so bad it will dislodge their tablet from the mount and throw it off the machine.

Juki knows this is a common issue because they engineered a “fix,” companies don’t put effort into designing solutions to problems that are mostly in made up in the minds of their users.  To make their unwillingness to take responsibility worse, Juki’s position to forces users back to dealers they claim to be failures to purchase the Damper Kit to resolve this issue.  To add insult to injury, the price for this “fix” varies wildly from $300 to reportedly as much as $600.

The Ugly:

This mentality toward customers comes as little surprise given some of the reviews from their own employees online.  I  regret to say that because of my own dealings with management at Juki America I have little doubt that the employees who made the following reviews are telling the truth.

They don’t even take their web resources seriously. For example, the current webpage for the Miyabi J-350QVP comes up in a google search yet their link on their website is throwing a 404 error.

This is not the first time I have discovered issues with their website.  Previously it took me over 3 weeks to track down someone to fix miss linked brochures and manuals on Juki J-150QVP page.

The Good:

Look don’t get me wrong.  I have a Juki TL-2200QVP w/ Juki Quilters Creative Touch and my machine runs like a champ. (Full disclosure my machine came with the dampener kit.  My dealer here in western Washington, Quality Sewing and Vacuum refuses to sell the machine without it already installed.  As a result I didn’t even know about the vibration issue until I became a moderator on the Juki Longarm Facebook Group) I defy you to find one single post on the internet from Juki Corporation acknowledging this vibration “Design Flaw” or assisting their customers on the resolution of the issue or providing any documentation for installation of the Damper Kit.  If you find one make a comment below with the link and your contact info and I will send you a gift card for a coffee.

I have to admit this Juki SmartStitch looks very interesting and I can’t wait to see how much it improves the quality of the stitches.  It would be awesome if Juki were able to upgrade our control box software so current owners could get the new bobbin indicator feature, but I won’t be holding my breath.  This is one of the most annoying things about robotic longarming.  It would be cool to know when your machine is getting ready to run out of bobbin thread so you don’t have to go back and repair your pantographs.  Unfortunately, I don’t see that they added stitch count to the controller box software, yet this is a commonly requested feature.

Since it appears Juki has decided to stay in this market lets hope they start doing a better job of supporting, listening and training their customers on these machines priced at $10+ k.

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