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Are TrueVIS Rolands really THAT bad?

C

Category5

New Member
I’m in the process of cutting ties with my current business partners and realizing a longtime dream of opening a shop on my own closer to my hometown. In doing so, I’m not keeping any of the equipment in the current shop and buying new.
My first instinct was to invest in the latest and greatest from Roland, since I’ve been using them for years with great results. I’ve used an SP-540V, SP-300i, VS-540 and even the old PC600 thermal transfer printer, all without major failures, aside from minor hiccups here and there.
But now, scores of nasty reviews and “help me” threads for the newer TrueVIS lines have me concerned about dropping $18-20K on a new Roland that will function as the primary workhorse for a business. I was looking at the VG-540A, and now the VG2-540. Are these things really as bad as the problem threads here make them out to be, or am I just being paranoid? Anyone know if Roland has addressed some of the common problems with the VG with the updated VG2?
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
I personally won't be buying another Roland. We have a 10 year old XC-540 and 5 year old XR-640 which have worked well over the years but from what I've seen and heard Roland is going downhill in terms of quality builds. They just keep coming up with shiny new models and not addressing the previous versions that aren't able to perform as advertised.

Even when we got the second one 5 years ago it was obvious the quality had changed from the previous Soljet model. We had to replace the whole stand/lower end because it couldn't track worth a damn. It was a known issue and Roland even had a product bulletin with "fixes" for the issue yet they pretended it wasn't a serious issue. Still to this day I don't trust either one to print for more than 2 hours unattended because they can and will buckle on you resulting in head strikes and ruined prints. Definitely not something they mention on their brochures. Prints great for the most part, aside from random ink starvation every few feet on solid colors. Overall they do work (I haven't seen the new versions but have heard the nightmares) but just keep in mind that they might not work as advertised.

Definitely not trying to discourage you from going with Roland, just sharing my experience. All printers/equipment have their quirks, it just seems to me Roland has more than it's fair share lately.

We'll be looking at either an EPSON or (gulp) eventually making the jump over to latex (HP) when we need our next printer.

Good luck with your search and your new business venture.
 
MikePro

MikePro

New Member
o wow, really? i fell in love with the VG2's print quality & super sexy design that I had witnessed at the sign show. White point is incredible as well. I'd hate to blame the users, but a lot of those help me threads are from people that are completely new to wideformat printer technology and a lot of their problems arise while trying to fix another problem, or are simply not maintaining the machine as they should. That being said, I still love my HP and its ease-of-use/maintenance and am even more in love with their new HP R1000 hybrid.
 
T

thesignpost

New Member
Yep, I have have been in the business for 21 years, I started out with Roland and have been a faithful customer until I bought the Versa UV LEJ 640 and then later bought the XR 640. I had one issue after another with the UV machine, the excuses I received from Roland was incredible. I have bought my last machine from them, even my vendor stopped selling them. I noticed the same thing with Roland, they used to be the industry leader, I would say MIMAKI definitely, don't waste your time with Roland.
 
BigfishDM

BigfishDM

Merchant Member
Category5 said:
I’m in the process of cutting ties with my current business partners and realizing a longtime dream of opening a shop on my own closer to my hometown. In doing so, I’m not keeping any of the equipment in the current shop and buying new.
My first instinct was to invest in the latest and greatest from Roland, since I’ve been using them for years with great results. I’ve used an SP-540V, SP-300i, VS-540 and even the old PC600 thermal transfer printer, all without major failures, aside from minor hiccups here and there.
But now, scores of nasty reviews and “help me” threads for the newer TrueVIS lines have me concerned about dropping $18-20K on a new Roland that will function as the primary workhorse for a business. I was looking at the VG-540A, and now the VG2-540. Are these things really as bad as the problem threads here make them out to be, or am I just being paranoid? Anyone know if Roland has addressed some of the common problems with the VG with the updated VG2?
Click to expand...

Have you looked into Latex machines yet?
 
HomeStadiumsScott

HomeStadiumsScott

New Member
I'm brand new to the game and purchased a VG-540 last May. I love it and it was easy to learn on. The print/cut feature is great. I've only had one real hiccup which was of my own doing - was trying to print a very large JPEG that was 300ppi and Versaworks can only handle JPEGs at 150ppi.

The Ink lasts a long time and is very cost effective. It's a great machine from my limited and relatively in-experienced perspective! Basically what I'm trying to say is that if I can use this machine and not break it, you'll be perfectly fine with it.
 
C

Category5

New Member
Update: I decided to take the gamble. I ordered a VG2-540 this week with the new orange ink setup. I’ll keep everyone posted here of both the good and the bad.
 
C

Category5

New Member
After speaking with my Roland rep, he put me in touch with the handful of customers he’s sold the newer model to, including one who has a VG and a VG2 sitting side by side. Apparently, Roland has made some improvements in the VG2’s reliability over the VG. We’ll soon see how it goes, I guess. Like I said in my previous post, I’ll keep everyone posted on how it works out.
 
O

OADesign

New Member
I'm surprised to hear folks don't like the VGs. I got a VG-640 3+- years ago and its been great. Although a bit finicky when it comes to cleaning etc. Its been a work horse with great output. With out it, this years (and last) volume and margins would have been impossible. And with the new bits in VersaWorks Dual, it has saved me tons of time omitting file prep steps that are necessary in regular VersaWorks. I guess it puts truth the the saying, YMMV.
 
S

StickerBee

New Member
Category5 said:
After speaking with my Roland rep, he put me in touch with the handful of customers he’s sold the newer model to, including one who has a VG and a VG2 sitting side by side. Apparently, Roland has made some improvements in the VG2’s reliability over the VG. We’ll soon see how it goes, I guess. Like I said in my previous post, I’ll keep everyone posted on how it works out.
Click to expand...
Do you have latest update on your VG2? Im about to pick up a VG640 and im still a little bit worried with all the had reviews.
 
C

Category5

New Member
StickerBee said:
Do you have latest update on your VG2? Im about to pick up a VG640 and im still a little bit worried with all the had reviews.
Click to expand...
Hasn’t arrived yet, but the problems seem to center more on the SG models than the VGs. Particularly the early builds.
 
petepaz

petepaz

New Member
we have many rolands...
vp-540, 18yrs old and still printing (just black die lay outs but it works), xc-540 14yrs old, this thing is a work horse (just replaced the main board about 6 months ago), xr-640, 6yrs old another work horse and really have had no trouble with this machine at all, lej-640 we run this machine like crazy we have replaced a few heads due to head strike but we print a lot of crazy stuff other than that no real major issues. little stuff here and there but like i said this machine runs all the time and we do have the truvis vg-540, 2.5yrs old this has been ok, we have not had the big problems others have had but i will say out of all the rolands we have this one has had the most problems in the shortest period of time.
 
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P

player

New Member
petepaz said:
we have many rolands...
vp-540, 18yrs old and still printing (just black die lay outs but it works), xc-540 14yrs old, this thing is a work horse (just replaced the main board about 6 months ago), xr-640, 6yrs old another work horse and really have had no trouble with this machine at all, lej-640 we run this machine like crazy we have replaced a few heads due to head strike but we print a lot of crazy stuff other than that no real major issues. little stuff here and there but like i said this machine runs all the time and we do have the truvis vg-540, 2.5yrs old this has been ok, we have not had the big problems others have had but i will say out of all the rolands we have this one has had the most problems in the shortest period of time.
Click to expand...
Do you mean SP-540? I don't think the VP units were out in 2001.
 
petepaz

petepaz

New Member
no it's a vp-540 and before that we had a vp-300 (that was the first machine we had but soon realized we needed the bigger machine) so i was a little off on my time frame. we got the vp-300 in 2001 or early 2002 and then like 6-8 months later we got the vp-540
 
d fleming

d fleming

Premium Subscriber
Can't spec models but one of my neighbor shops that does a ton of printing just got their 3rd roland. He is corporate wrap king around here. I don't think he would have bought a third if he wasn't happy with the other 2. I had a seiko for 10 years and rode that sucker into the dirt. It was a Tank. I just sub out my printing now as I don't do as much as I used to and don't want the headache.
 
I

icex

New Member
I had a vg540 last year. Biggest POS ever. It would not cut worth a dime, a circle sticker it would cut right down the middle of it. Dealer refused to fix it, so I sold it. Buyer just prints banners and has not had any peoblems
 
Malkin

Malkin

New Member
We are also reasonably happy with our VG-540. Agree with being a bit finicky with the cleaning, but the output is great.
 
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