HP Post-Warranty Service Plan...

[mjohnsonsa]

I purchased an HP 315 Print and Cut just over a year ago and received an email today for HP service plan now that the warranty period is over. The cost is MUCH higher than I was told it would be when I bought the unit. I have a couple of questions that I am hoping you all could answer:

1. Would the Service Plan have been cheaper if I renew the plan PRIOR to when the warranty expired?

2. Is there any alternative for having the printer fixed if there is a problem other than HP?

3. Is there a way to purchase the service plan through another third party to get it cheaper similar to the way you can purchase ToyotaCare extended service plan from other Toyota Dealers to get better pricing than the dealer you bought the car from?

I am feeling a little strong armed and misled right now because I was planning to continue the service plan after the warranty when I purchased the printer and cutter but was told it would be cheaper and I would be offered the opportunity to purchase it at a discounted price if I purchased it prior to the warranty expiration, but I was never contacted by my dealer before hand and now the price is high and HP is quoting $1,500 per event should I need anything out of warranty.

Frustrated,
Matt

 

[Billct2]

Yep, they just about force you to buy it, unless you want to fix it yourself. Or if you can locate a local tech who works on them reasonably. I have different hp printers and back when I used to fix them myself when they were out of warranty. But I don't enjoy doing it and my time is better spent making signs rather than fixing machines. Now I pay the price and I have usually had it work out well. One somewhat involved repair will cost what the warranty runs..

 

[Joe House]

The price is cheaper if you buy the service contract at the same time you purchase the printer. After that it goes up. Once the printer is out of warranty, I don't think you can get a service contract on it, but they may have a grace period. You could opt to self serve if you choose. Some parts are available at Partshere.com,

Good Luck

 

[jawdavis]

I have owned 6 different printers of the 3 generations of latex machines. Over that time, the service/care/warranty part of the business has evolved just as much as the printers themselves. Early on we had some techs come out under warranty, but mainly since then I have done the majority of repairs on all the machines myself, including helping some other folks who were skittish of it. I'd say I'm pretty familiar with all the different systems involved in each printer, but I'm by no means a printer tech. Essentially, I'm just cheap. My issue with the HP latex machines and their associated "Care Packages" is that I've found the most likely thing to break on these machines, are the cheap plastic parts that were underengineered for heavy use. There are so many things on this printer that should have been made out of metal but were instead made out of plastic and will inevitably wear out. I have replaced SEVERAL pinchwheel lever assemblies because of a stupid plastic piece that continues to fail. The only way to get this piece is to order a $100+ kit that comes with unnecessary parts. Both of the spectrophotometers broke off the carriage on our 360's because of the plastic housing, and I had to fabricate a mount to reinstall them. I've also replaced the right roll housing module on both machines, along with heater modules. None of these are super difficult or expensive fixes but they take time and effort and cost us machine downtime, so I can see where having a tech come in and do the replacement might be tempting. However, if I were to guess, I'd bet more of the HP "Care Package" service calls have been made for stupid little piddly things like these, rather than ink delivery system malfunctions, failing circuit boards, bad heaters, etc.. Basically all I'm saying is that if you're the least bit handy, you can do alot of the service on these machines yourself, and the service manuals outline every single step in detail. In the last 2 years, I've probably spent less than $1k on repairing (3) Latex machines (not including preventive MK1 and MK3) and keeping them in service myself. What would the service contract have cost me in that same time span?