Price on new GS6000

Grimco will not help with Tech support. You will have to call EPSON for all matters. I've never worked with Advantage and don't know if they have the same policy. Sounds about the same price that I paid in December 2009 but didn't receive machine until mid Feb. 2010. Had no issues so far with machine knock on wood. This is my Wide Large Format printer.

 

Advantages service is worth way more than a cheaper price from Grimco...... Advantage will help you with the software and any machine issues.... Advantage has their own technicians in the field... Grimco hires 3rd parties now and let go of their best tech in the Chicagoland area....

This machine is awesome.. There are issues with all machines out there... For the most part, the GS6000 has been rock solid... I know there was a green ink issue that has been worked out and they will resolve if it happens to someone...

The extended warranty may be worth it when you are dealing with expensive heads and motherboard...........It's like buying health insurance, you may never use it, but if you do, then it is huge.......

Service goes a long way...........Advantage will be with you when you encounter problems, Grimco disappears........ I guarantee in the midwest where you are located that you will get the best training out there from Advantage......

The choice is up to obviously.....YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR...............

Case

 

We bought ours bundled with a graphtec 64" plotter 3 months ago from advantage. We paid a bit more than what you are listing, but we also got a new plotter. After 3 months of having the machine running pretty much non stop, these are my thoughts:

Quality: A+
We upgraded 3 older roll to roll printers (2 solvent + 1 aqueous) with 1 epson gs6000. It can produce a better resolution print than our previous aqueous machine without having to sacrifice the outdoor durability that our solvent machines had. The inter-weaving technology is nothing new, but it is new to us and we love it. No more banding!!! The orange and green print heads widen the color gamut and allow for us to nail the UT orange that is so common in our town. Quality on this printer deserves an A+ because it is outstanding.

Speed: A
Apparently this machine is the fastest of the eco-solvents on the market topping out at around 300/sf/hour in banner mode. We have yet to print in this mode, but I am sure it is still acceptable quality. We just finished a run of 10,000 static clings that took (7) 75' foot rolls. Due to the fine print and static cling being b&#$! to print on, we had to run these on 1440 x 1400. It took us around 42 print hours to complete the job, wich averages out to about 50/sf/hour. Keep in mind that this is printed on 1440 x 1440 (16) pass mode. This shows that the printers fastest speed is 300/sf/hour and the slowest is 50/sf/hour. Your typical print job will fall about right in the middle of the two. Speed has never been a huge issue for us, as it has always been quality over speed. But if you were a balls to the walls print shop, you may give it a different rating.

Reliability/Maintenance: A
This section has nothing to do with Advantage and their service, but focuses primarily on the machines reliability. Other than the few hiccups we had (bad print heads) at first, this machine has been solid. You come in, fire it up and its ready to go. The most important part is you go home at night knowing it will run the next morning. It runs its own light cleaning cycle ever 12 hours so you don't have to. The reliabilty has been very good and maintenance is next to none.

Ink: B
This machine is being sold as a solvent minus the harsh chemicals (nikel) so there is no ventilation required. It is true that you do not need to ventilate the working area, but I would be hesitant to sell this as a solvent machine. Coming from (2) true solvent printers, we never had to overlaminate any prints off those machines. We now find ourselves overlaminating everything to prevent any scuffing of the ink and to prolong the life of the print. This may be typical for eco-solvent machines, but it sure isn't the case with true solvents. We were sold this machine with the intention of operating it like our old solvents, but we now have to be much more careful when handling prints (scufs, scrapes, etc). We have noticed on banners with heavy coverage and dark colors that the ink can be scuffed/scraped fairly easy.

Service: B+
This is one of the most important factors when buying a new piece of equipment. If something breaks, how and when is it going to be fixed?
Like I said above, we bought our printer from Advantage and have a 1 year bumper to bumper service contract through them. Any issues that we have had have been fixed, but the real question is: who is doing the fixing?

I have never had so many hands involved in a service contract as this one. I was told that my first line of defense is Advantage. So when I have a question/problem (either simple or complex), I call Advantage and leave a message to call me back. Sometimes its 1 hours or sometimes its the next day (if at all) before you hear back from them. I am not in the business of playing phone tag, I am business to do work and get paid. This become imensley frustrating when all you want is a simple question answered. After becoming so frustrated with the "leave a message and wait" tactic, we started bypassing Advantage and calling Epson direct. It's great! You call and get a tech with in 1 minute. If the tech diagnosis a problem that cannot be fixed over the phone, they issue a work order with a company called Descision 1. Another party that is contracted by Epson to come on site and fix any issues that you may have. After a work order has been submitted you are to be contacted by a tech with in the next 24 hours to schedule a service time. So lets break it down:

1. Call Advantage and leave a message. You will hear back from them in 1-2 business days if at all. They will walk you through what they can and then have you call Epson direct.

2. Call Epson direct. You get a phone tech very quickly that will trouble shoot over the phone. They will then issue a work order if neccessary through Descision 1.

3. Wait for Descision 1 to call you in the next 24 hours to schedule a service time. Descision 1 will give you a techs cell phone # to deal with directly.

4. Deal directly with tech from D1 to coordinate a onsite visit.
Holy sh!# this is exhausting.

We have learned to contact Epson direct and deal only with their tech department. Not that Advantage is not knowledgeable, but I am not interested in waiting for simple questions to be answered. No hate towards any of these companies, there is just to many hands in the pot. It should be one company handling it all.

Over all: A
This printer has been great. We had a few little issues, but nothing that couldn't be resolved. The reliability/quality/speed are incredible for the price of the machine. A few things to work on are the service and developing a more aggressive ink. Over all, I would definitely buy it again.

 

I guess I was a bit misleading. I am very happy with Advantage and their service, but they are just one more step that I don't need. When you buy from Advantage it's like you have 2 choices of service companies. I can call Advantage and/or I can call Epson. When you call Advantage, you have to wait for somebody to return your call. On the other hand, when you call Epson you talk to somebody imediately. In the end, its just much faster to call Epson direct and cut out the middle man (Advantage). When push comes to shove and you need a field tech at your place, Epson is the company you will be working with. I know it sounds like a bunch of rambling, but its the only way I know how to put it.

Bottom line: Advantage has been great and the printer has been great. Advantage just does not need to be involved with the service contract.

Not sure how big of the price difference is between the two companies, but I prefer Advantage over Grimco. Advantage was very knowledgable when it came to the install and any questions that we had.

Hope this helps!

 

Here is the link on their Website.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/...V_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=107294&infoType=Contact
I don't think you can get through to the Toll Free Tech Support (1 888 #) without your Unit ID number

 

For $1,000 difference, most definitely go with Advantage. See the link above for tech support.

As far as the graphtec plotter, we are not very happy with it. Everything on it works fine, but the eye/sensor was poorly designed. Like I mentioned above, we just had a run of 10k static cling decals that we had to print and run through the graphtec and it was a disaster. It literally took 8-9 attempts on each reading. This is on any kind of gloss material. They have no resolution to the problem except to rig it however you can to make it work. Very poorly designed. I think in the end we will be sending it back and replacing it with something else.

 

Ok at first I wasn't sold on how Advantage service was handled. I had a couple of issues but when they explained their side and I explained mine it was just a communication error. Their techs are great, highly trained and very helpful! They have recently went over and above on an issue I am having with my Mimaki even thought it is out of warranty. We figured out it wasn't the machine but was the computer. Either way the way they helped me with this problem, they didn't need to and I apprecite what they did.

I would certainly think $2,000 for someone to provide you with the tech they have is well worth the extra dough. I haven't had any experience with Grimco so can't comment on that.

Thanks,
Kurt