I had a Cameo 3 for Christmas and as an experienced user expected no problems, however after my first cut, which was perfect, everything else was awful. The auto blade was happily clicking away but never ended up on the setting it should have been on resulting in terrible cuts. I tried everything I could think of and managed to get a semi reasonable cut with an older blade so I decided to buy another auto blade. The new blade worked perfectly and I have been regularly cutting with it with no further problems. I think that sadly there are some sub standard blades being sent out with the machines. I ordered mine direct from Graphtec, not Create and craft as so many others who have had trouble seemed to. Seems that I was unlucky to be supplied with a dodgy blade. Now that I have a good one I am more than happy with my new machine, but I can fully understand that for a new user this could be very off putting. If I was not a long time user I would not have known what to do at all.