I have major issue here and need some advice on where to turn, what to do. This will be a long explanation so please bare with me.
I bought a printer from a company (not going to say the name unless I have to) 8-9 years ago. A brand new Roland VP-540. Been using it for all these years and have only had to replace ONE printhead, all the others have worked flawlessly. Im a print shop out of my basement printing graphics for pinballs and classic arcades and have been very successful all these years in doing so.
As of Jan this year my black print head start going wacky, missprinting and so I bought a new printhead off ebay from a respected seller and it saved me money. I did the installation myself as its really easy and everything went well. A week later HALF of my black print head stop working. I called up this Company, Ill call them (company A), and they sent out a tech after 2 weeks of waiting. The tech right away said its just a bad print head and its because I bought a discounted one and not from Roland. OK thats fine, he installed the new one and it wasn't working correctly so he unplugged my damper and ink flew all over. He noticed it wasnt a Roland damper but it was a cheaper one (which has always worked fine). He blamed the ink flying all over on the cheap damper. The ink was all over the printhead board and cables.
At this time after he cleaned the ink off he did a test print and now CYAN didnt work at all, as well as the black. He said Cyan print head died because its old and they worked out a deal and made me pay $400 for a new one as he felt bad that ink might have ruined it possibly (even though he just said it was an old printhead and was bound to die soon). Ok so now I am getting another printhead and I have to pay an extra $400 for the Cyan, the $1200 for the printhead for black and then about $500 in labor.
Heres where it gets bad. As he was testing the printheads he put electrical tape on the cable connecting the printhead to the printhead board so he could test some other cables. He didnt find the problem and then left. Two weeks later he came back and pulled the electrical tape off the ribbon cable and the little tiny gold connections were coming off and bent. Here is where I think the entire printer took a turn for the worse. He said I think I can straighten these and after he said that he then plugged that cable in turned the printer on. Right at this moment we both heard a little POP noise, it was the fuse on the Main PCB, the middle one that controls the black and cyan print head. He pulls the cable out and said the cable is just to far ruined and might have shorted it, now I need to buy all new wiring as the wiring has brown spots that look burned. I did what he said and I literally ordered all new wiring, even the large long cables that go from the printhead board to the main pcb. He said its probably just bad cables from that one cable creating a short and it should fix it. So hundreds of dollars later and now almost 2 months with no business and almost TWO entire sets of ink he went through doing test prints I am still helpless with no working printer. I installed all the new cables and the fuse still blows. They are telling me I need to buy an entire new main PCB which is $1600 plus labor. My printer has been sitting so long im sure all my printheads are ruined even though I do what the tech said and put solution in the cap heads every two days.
Here are the quotes on what the tech has said to me in this entire process.
"I never touched a printer until 9 months ago and they sent me to California for 3 days then when I got back sent me out in the field to work. Pretty much no training and you know as much as me probably."
"When I unplugged your ink tube from the damper it went all over and wasn't my fault because you used a cheap non Roland damper"
So.... Here are some facts about this print tech, yes I looked him up online and facebook, actually my wife did. He has been to prison for drugs, been arrested many times for driving while barred and he has a pretty long past of wrong doings. Now do I want to judge him for this, Not really but I also wasnt going to leave him there alone with my wife while Im at my main job. So I watched every little thing he did. He was a nice guy, we talked about many different things and I don't want to throw him in the bottom of the barrel but at the end of the day ultimately I think he screwed up my printer and I am in a helpless situation. For them to do any more work I have to pay them even more money and he could make the printer even worse yet, somehow. I have spent thousands now, and lost thousands being out of business. He has called me and cancelled an appointment because they had a new customer with a new printer they really need to help with an issue, as Im just a guy in my basement and not as important.
Not only did I buy my printer from them but I took wrap classes with this company and all these years been buying 99% of my media from them. Im lost, Im broke, Im in a situation where I dont know where to turn for help.
I bought a printer from a company (not going to say the name unless I have to) 8-9 years ago. A brand new Roland VP-540. Been using it for all these years and have only had to replace ONE printhead, all the others have worked flawlessly. Im a print shop out of my basement printing graphics for pinballs and classic arcades and have been very successful all these years in doing so.
As of Jan this year my black print head start going wacky, missprinting and so I bought a new printhead off ebay from a respected seller and it saved me money. I did the installation myself as its really easy and everything went well. A week later HALF of my black print head stop working. I called up this Company, Ill call them (company A), and they sent out a tech after 2 weeks of waiting. The tech right away said its just a bad print head and its because I bought a discounted one and not from Roland. OK thats fine, he installed the new one and it wasn't working correctly so he unplugged my damper and ink flew all over. He noticed it wasnt a Roland damper but it was a cheaper one (which has always worked fine). He blamed the ink flying all over on the cheap damper. The ink was all over the printhead board and cables.
At this time after he cleaned the ink off he did a test print and now CYAN didnt work at all, as well as the black. He said Cyan print head died because its old and they worked out a deal and made me pay $400 for a new one as he felt bad that ink might have ruined it possibly (even though he just said it was an old printhead and was bound to die soon). Ok so now I am getting another printhead and I have to pay an extra $400 for the Cyan, the $1200 for the printhead for black and then about $500 in labor.
Heres where it gets bad. As he was testing the printheads he put electrical tape on the cable connecting the printhead to the printhead board so he could test some other cables. He didnt find the problem and then left. Two weeks later he came back and pulled the electrical tape off the ribbon cable and the little tiny gold connections were coming off and bent. Here is where I think the entire printer took a turn for the worse. He said I think I can straighten these and after he said that he then plugged that cable in turned the printer on. Right at this moment we both heard a little POP noise, it was the fuse on the Main PCB, the middle one that controls the black and cyan print head. He pulls the cable out and said the cable is just to far ruined and might have shorted it, now I need to buy all new wiring as the wiring has brown spots that look burned. I did what he said and I literally ordered all new wiring, even the large long cables that go from the printhead board to the main pcb. He said its probably just bad cables from that one cable creating a short and it should fix it. So hundreds of dollars later and now almost 2 months with no business and almost TWO entire sets of ink he went through doing test prints I am still helpless with no working printer. I installed all the new cables and the fuse still blows. They are telling me I need to buy an entire new main PCB which is $1600 plus labor. My printer has been sitting so long im sure all my printheads are ruined even though I do what the tech said and put solution in the cap heads every two days.
Here are the quotes on what the tech has said to me in this entire process.
"I never touched a printer until 9 months ago and they sent me to California for 3 days then when I got back sent me out in the field to work. Pretty much no training and you know as much as me probably."
"When I unplugged your ink tube from the damper it went all over and wasn't my fault because you used a cheap non Roland damper"
So.... Here are some facts about this print tech, yes I looked him up online and facebook, actually my wife did. He has been to prison for drugs, been arrested many times for driving while barred and he has a pretty long past of wrong doings. Now do I want to judge him for this, Not really but I also wasnt going to leave him there alone with my wife while Im at my main job. So I watched every little thing he did. He was a nice guy, we talked about many different things and I don't want to throw him in the bottom of the barrel but at the end of the day ultimately I think he screwed up my printer and I am in a helpless situation. For them to do any more work I have to pay them even more money and he could make the printer even worse yet, somehow. I have spent thousands now, and lost thousands being out of business. He has called me and cancelled an appointment because they had a new customer with a new printer they really need to help with an issue, as Im just a guy in my basement and not as important.
Not only did I buy my printer from them but I took wrap classes with this company and all these years been buying 99% of my media from them. Im lost, Im broke, Im in a situation where I dont know where to turn for help.
