News HP Issued New Service Update with Flat Rate Pricing???

[Kentucky Wraps]

Apparently starting January 2, 2019 HP Onsite Support is having FLAT RATE for repairs on Out Of Warranty Latex Printers. The price doesn't depend on the time it takes to fix or the cost of the parts.

The driving factor in the price is the RESPONSE time you need it in.
3-5 Business Day Response $1500
1-2 Business Day Response $2000
1-2 Business Day Response – $899**
**Discounted (with purchase of 12 month full service agreement) I don't know that that costs.

Then of course there's the 'ol *Some exclusions may apply.

(So it could be a $1 part that takes 10 minutes to fix or a $800 part that takes 8 hours to fix...it's going to cost the same?) Does that make sense?
I like that it takes just about all the guess work out of how much it will cost.
I don't know if that "response time" is a guarantee because the part may have to come from overseas or the nearest technician may be booked up for longer than the desired response time.
I see pro's and con's of this model.

Thoughts?

 

[BALLPARK]

Waiting to see what other info comes out on it. I like the concept of a flat fee going forward, but the devil is in the details.

 

[Dan360]

My guess is they want more profit on shorter service calls. I'm guessing a lot of them end up quite a bit shorter than they expect, especially with years under their belt with these machines now. And then making the long service calls less frustrating for owners as costs can just keep adding up while your printer is down and they try to figure it out.

I'm glad I started diving into our HP and just pay for parts. HP always just refers us to Grimco for service and just to get them down to us is around $1k. Have been saving a lot of money and getting printing much quicker.

 

[chester215]

Got the same notice the other day.
My first thought was.....
I don't think my next printer will be a HP Latex.

 

[CanuckSigns]

seems to follow their business model for their desktop printers, with their ink subscription program where you pay a flat fee per month based on how many pages you print and they ship you enough ink cartridges to print that many pages each month.

On one hand it's nice to know exactly how much you will be paying for maintenance and repairs for the year and I do see some value in that, on the other hand I can see how the cost could add up quickly, if you are not technical enough to repair your own printer ( full disclosure, I'm not) and get a $2000 bill for replacing a $50 pump or something I would be livid!

Time to put my tinfoil hat on, but I can see HP moving to a business model where you don't "buy" anything from them, you pay them a monthly fee and they set you up with a printer and ink to print x number of square feet per month, once you go over you pay more money, they did a similar concept in the photocopier world a few years ago, tie you into a 3-5 year contract.

 

[WrapSolutions]

Got the same notice the other day.
My first thought was.....
I don't think my next printer will be a HP Latex.

We've had countless issues with this machine and unfortunately they all occurred after purchasing our second HP570. I cannot describe my thorough repeated disappointment(s) with HP and their customer service. Has anyone else had to purchase the Service Maintenance Kit #3 (SMK-3) twice in 5 months - this service runs $1500? That was just the tip of the iceberg for my complaints but liked to hear if anyone experienced the same? And on that note does anyone recommend any OTHER Latex printer?

 

[Solventinkjet]

We've had countless issues with this machine and unfortunately they all occurred after purchasing our second HP570. I cannot describe my thorough repeated disappointment(s) with HP and their customer service. Has anyone else had to purchase the Service Maintenance Kit #3 (SMK-3) twice in 5 months - this service runs $1500? That was just the tip of the iceberg for my complaints but liked to hear if anyone experienced the same? And on that note does anyone recommend any OTHER Latex printer?

I don't have a lot of experience with the Latex machines but I was under the impression that they were cheaper to maintain than a solvent machine. I can maintain a Mimaki CJV150 for an entire year for about $300 and that includes changing parts no one ever changes. Not sure how a machine with disposable heads could need such maintenance!

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

My guess is they want more profit on shorter service calls. I'm guessing a lot of them end up quite a bit shorter than they expect, especially with years under their belt with these machines now. And then making the long service calls less frustrating for owners as costs can just keep adding up while your printer is down and they try to figure it out.

I'm glad I started diving into our HP and just pay for parts. HP always just refers us to Grimco for service and just to get them down to us is around $1k. Have been saving a lot of money and getting printing much quicker.

I'd say this guess is close to 110% accurate. Somebody ran some numbers and this looks good on paper, but it'll end up making HP mucho dinero.

 

[particleman]

I don't have a lot of experience with the Latex machines but I was under the impression that they were cheaper to maintain than a solvent machine. I can maintain a Mimaki CJV150 for an entire year for about $300 and that includes changing parts no one ever changes. Not sure how a machine with disposable heads could need such maintenance!

On this forum is you have people that may use their machines an hour a day (or less) and people that might use the same machine 8+ hours a day. The later group you will use much more consumables and for example that SMK-3 kit is on a hard print counter to replace. So to have to do it twice in 5 months that is a lot of printing. Others (like me) may not hit that for 2 years. What I find deceptive about the SMK-3 kit though is that I'm fairly certain (I know a nearby shop) that hit the counter inside the warranty and HP will still charge you to replace it. I don't think there were open enough about this kit and the fees involved for the 500 series in my opinion.

Regarding the price changes, I feel like it is more an incentive to get people to keep service on their machine. I'm not impressed by the pricing at all, however, I plan on keeping service on my machine. With other machines I've had (my last latex for example) I was comfortable working on for the most part, so you are still free to order parts and do the work yourself.

 

[particleman]

Oh and by the way did anyone notice that HP exposed 500 emails of their Latex owner list when they emailed this? Whoever sent the email included everyone on the CC field instead of the BCC field.

 

[WrapSolutions]

I don't have a lot of experience with the Latex machines but I was under the impression that they were cheaper to maintain than a solvent machine. I can maintain a Mimaki CJV150 for an entire year for about $300 and that includes changing parts no one ever changes. Not sure how a machine with disposable heads could need such maintenance!

We were under the same impression on cheaper maintenance when sold this product as well. This year alone (on a machine that is not even two years old) cost has been ~$3000 in Service Maintenance fees in 2018 (when I started tracking the cost) ~$3,700 in print head replacements. In hind site I wish we had leased the machine so we could return it in a year, cause the longer the thing runs the more issues that occur.. I could also elaborate color inconsistency, and their deplorable customer service...

 

[WrapSolutions]

On this forum is you have people that may use their machines an hour a day (or less) and people that might use the same machine 8+ hours a day. The later group you will use much more consumables and for example that SMK-3 kit is on a hard print counter to replace. So to have to do it twice in 5 months that is a lot of printing. Others (like me) may not hit that for 2 years. What I find deceptive about the SMK-3 kit though is that I'm fairly certain (I know a nearby shop) that hit the counter inside the warranty and HP will still charge you to replace it. I don't think there were open enough about this kit and the fees involved for the 500 series in my opinion.

Regarding the price changes, I feel like it is more an incentive to get people to keep service on their machine. I'm not impressed by the pricing at all, however, I plan on keeping service on my machine. With other machines I've had (my last latex for example) I was comfortable working on for the most part, so you are still free to order parts and do the work yourself.

And yes I did fail to mention our HP 570s on average run 7 hours a day 5 days a week (excellent point) - 98% of our prints are for vehicle wraps

 

[rjssigns]

seems to follow their business model for their desktop printers, with their ink subscription program where you pay a flat fee per month based on how many pages you print and they ship you enough ink cartridges to print that many pages each month.

On one hand it's nice to know exactly how much you will be paying for maintenance and repairs for the year and I do see some value in that, on the other hand I can see how the cost could add up quickly, if you are not technical enough to repair your own printer ( full disclosure, I'm not) and get a $2000 bill for replacing a $50 pump or something I would be livid!

Time to put my tinfoil hat on, but I can see HP moving to a business model where you don't "buy" anything from them, you pay them a monthly fee and they set you up with a printer and ink to print x number of square feet per month, once you go over you pay more money, they did a similar concept in the photocopier world a few years ago, tie you into a 3-5 year contract.

You may not be far off. HP Indigo Digital Presses have a "click charge" that covers ink, consumables and maintenance. In simple terms one click is one color. 4/0 job would be 4 clicks per press sheet. 4/4 would be eight clicks per press sheet. It is my understanding there is some flexibility in the plans although I don't deal with that end of things.

 

[jfiscus]

The technicians that came out to work on ours had never even worked on one before our shop, they were used to fixing other HP products but got assigned to fix our machine. And this was under warranty, I can't imagine who would be servicing out of warranty... Always fun when you know more than the tech you're paying $$$ to tell you what you already know.

 

[Kentucky Wraps]

Oh and by the way did anyone notice that HP exposed 500 emails of their Latex owner list when they emailed this? Whoever sent the email included everyone on the CC field instead of the BCC field.

And those were just the A through D section of their Sent List. Though, scraper programs can grab all that stuff from yello book for any specific criteria you want...nation wide.
So it's not as though it's hard to get an email list.