Buyer Beware

[signpainter1948]

I would recommend that anyone buying a printer, check into hidden costs and agendas. My HP 8000s has been a great printer, however I'm again facing an issue of extortion on the part of HP. A couple of years ago my printer displayed a message "NEEDS TUNEUP" Upon calling HP I was told the tuneup consisted of a tech coming to my shop and installing some new parts, for a fee of $1800!. I asked what would happen if I ignored the warning. I was told the printer would stop working, which it did the next day. I paid the money, the tech showed up 3 days later, installed the parts and left. The print quality was unacceptable. I called again, they sent the tech back, he played phone tag with someone and got the print quality a bit better. At that point he told me I probably needed to replace the printheads, (that worked just fine until he showed up), to the tune of $3500 each.
This was more than the printer cost originally. We played around with settings and finally got it back to where it was. All of this because a counter inside the printer disables it.
A couple of weeks ago, overnight, we got a message "CHECK 7 LM CARTRIDGE" The printer will not work and we can't get rid of the message. Upon calling tech support we were told that for $149 they would tell us how to get rid of the code. If it needs an actual part I might understand but to charge for resetting an error message?
If this is an example of their version of service after the sale, I will NEVER BUY AN HP PRODUCT.

 

[HulkSmash]

I would recommend that anyone buying a printer, check into hidden costs and agendas. My HP 8000s has been a great printer, however I'm again facing an issue of extortion on the part of HP. A couple of years ago my printer displayed a message "NEEDS TUNEUP" Upon calling HP I was told the tuneup consisted of a tech coming to my shop and installing some new parts, for a fee of $1800!. I asked what would happen if I ignored the warning. I was told the printer would stop working, which it did the next day. I paid the money, the tech showed up 3 days later, installed the parts and left. The print quality was unacceptable. I called again, they sent the tech back, he played phone tag with someone and got the print quality a bit better. At that point he told me I probably needed to replace the printheads, (that worked just fine until he showed up), to the tune of $3500 each.
This was more than the printer cost originally. We played around with settings and finally got it back to where it was. All of this because a counter inside the printer disables it.
A couple of weeks ago, overnight, we got a message "CHECK 7 LM CARTRIDGE" The printer will not work and we can't get rid of the message. Upon calling tech support we were told that for $149 they would tell us how to get rid of the code. If it needs an actual part I might understand but to charge for resetting an error message?
If this is an example of their version of service after the sale, I will NEVER BUY AN HP PRODUCT.

that printer is 10 years old. Time to upgrade my friend.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Don't mind me but this is funny I mean really funny.

But you are stuck so I should not laugh

The grass is not always greener on the other side, this is something that ya learn most of the time the hard way.

& why I am so happy using a brush to make a living, no I did not push myself hard enough to become rich & famous, but make a living that I enjoy with least amount of hassles.

To me making a living using skilled mind & hands is a good solid life operating machines to do this is just blah & costly

 

[HulkSmash]

Don't mind me but this is funny I mean really funny.

But you are stuck so I should not laugh

The grass is not always greener on the other side, this is something that ya learn most of the time the hard way.

& why I am so happy using a brush to make a living, no I did not push myself hard enough to become rich & famous, but make a living that I enjoy with least amount of hassles.

To me making a living using skilled mind & hands is a good solid life operating machines to do this is just blah & costly

That's a pretty dumb response Craig.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Very much so... Do brush manufacturers not charge you for a new brush when your brush gets used up?

Printers are tools that have lifespans and require maintenance. HP announced EOL on their Solvents last year... Its no wonder why repair costs are going up. I'd look at a newer model.

 

[iSign]

in this industry, with this type of equipment, I agree that the time comes when maintenance will be more costly than investing in new technology...

...that said, paying to unlock an error code seems like a hostage negotiation, ESPECIALLY after the other events cited in the op's post.

 

[Techman]

Printers are tools that have lifespans and require maintenance.

Some believe this as true,. Maintenance is one thing,. Killing another wise good running machine via some firmware demand is theft at best.


For our protection,, HAH! It is a big old lie perpetrated on us by the manufactures. I had several machines in my aresenal over the years that had timers in them. Printers, especially would quit suddenly when some factory set timer would time out,. I loved discovering how to override that ripoff to continue running my stuff.

If a printer quits when it breaks then so be it. It happens. When a printer quits because some company says its time then that is a bald face drip off. Especially onerous when the printer runs fine and produces a great output then suddenly quits and the manufacturer says its time to spend another several hundreds of dollars. All of this is pure bullscat.

Case in point. I have an old encad 600E that runs GREAT. I use a hack chip that overrides the factory commands to turn off the cartridges when they think it is time.
I have some cartridges still on the printer that are over double the run time and they are are still running like new.

This use of firmware to demand we pay a hostage fee is wrong no matter what they try to say is the reason for its usage. Warranty work. Well fine. When well out of warranty then the machine should be able to operate as long as parts will hold up.

 

[Techman]

charge for resetting an error message

HAve you tried to reset the NVRAM?

 

[player]

Unfortunate first post...

I wonder if the new latex HPs everyone is raving about has the same terminator firmware?

 

[phototec]

Epson printer are well known for their built in time bombs, I have an Epson Stylus Pro 4800 which uses a maintenance tank that has a counter built into a chip mounted on it's side, after a certain amount of cleanings you get an error message saying "Maintenance Tank Full" and the printer will NOT work any longer until you replace the maintenance tank for $35.

Most of time the maintenance tank is NOT actually full, but the counter thinks it's full, and the printer will not work. I got tired of playing the game purchasing these maintenance tank and did a Google search and discovered that you could pop off the top cover and replace the absorbent material inside the tank and use a chip re-setter to reset the chip and the reuse the old maintenance tank.

This just happened to me today, it takes me 10 minutes replenish the tank and reset the chip, and then I'm back in business, the best part is, I don't fall pray to the Epson scheme to sell more maintenance tanks.

[video=youtube;Qkh0wAywfnc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkh0wAywfnc[/video]

 

[SightLine]

Personally.... I'd be getting a newer printer. If I needed to get the one you have going though I'd be googling for a service manual, service menu access, etc so that I could reset its counters myself.

 

[OldPaint]

i have an HP K850 13 x 19 DESKJET......... carts for this are $38 EACH.........X 4 !!!!!!!!!!
i installed a CIS BULK INK system. worked great for a while. then started to have issues saying the cart was bad. this is not true, its the build in code on the cart chip!!!! i ordered 4 carts from a off brand supplier. installed them they work just fine. NOW when i empty these..........i will remove a small "card" inside the print cart........and this is the "chip" that allows the cart to work. i will install that "chip" into the CIS carts....and they will work flawlessly again.
i like techman have an old ENCAD......... bought 4 of the chinese carts........and a chip.......and havent changed carts since.....
its the built in "obsolescence" that is a problem.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

I guess my thought process is different then most in this industry. I look at these low cost printers as disposable tools, I bought my Latex with the notion that they are only going to have a 4 year effective lifespan. Last year at the 4 year mark on my L25500 we started having issues so we dumped it and moved to the L260. Hopefully I can upgrade sooner then 4 years on the 260 but, if it makes it 4 years its paid for itself 50x - 100x over and we will move on to the next machine.

This keeps us current, generally trouble free, and allows us to take advantage of new technologies. We factor the upgrade costs in to our day to day operating expenses and just bank it.

If this was a $250,000 machine we are talking about then the mindset would be different.

 

[Techman]

My old encad is old. But, it runs great. It makes a print that is perfect for what for what it is used. It is long ago paid for. Why upgrade something like this when it runs perfectly fine. That is nothing but feeding the monster of the upgrade.

It runs great because all the bugs were killed off long ago. It is worth so much more to keep running it than to suffer through some lease payments.. Why get something new, suffer through all the updates only to get rid of it later?

The prestige of a new machine is long lost after the first costly failure.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

We don't lease, We buy outright... We bank a certain dollar amount monthly and after about year 3 we have enough for the new printer.

I understand keeping things as long as possible, its just two methodologies... my GCC Jaguar IV has yet to have any major hiccups, I have no real rush to replace it and I wont until it has a major failure.

It truly comes down to the market you are in and your individual needs as a shop.