Roland Tech service quote $$ Are you serious?? $$

[dsignerchic]

If you want to learn, make sure to size up and ask the tech if he'd bill you more for watching/helping. Some will go both directions, like taking the extra time to show you little things but only 1/2 billing for the 'help', or just assume you will be a pain, get out of my way sort of fellow, but if you insist to provide 'help' they'll gladly upcharge you for the experience.
I've had both come in, we had a weird delivery experience, and the tech ditched us after day one of two day training on all 3 machines. No cut contour stuff, period. Then crediting that day of lesson back was the worst month of negotiations ever...

Wow! I had definately planned on picking his brain while he is here but did not cross my mind he might charge for that. I am going to attempt to do a few of these tasks myself to learn them and to save me an hour or 2 of service fees.

 

[dsignerchic]

Buy the parts from us and we'll talk to you over the phone if you get stuck or have any questions. The SP series is one of the easiest machines to work on. As long as you unplug the machine and wait 5 minutes before working on it, there isn't much damage you can do that can't be reversed. Thank you so much for this, I have already ordered the parts but next time I'll be ordering from you. I appreciate it!

Also, we charge $80/hr for travel and $160 per hour for service. $200 does seem high to me especially for an SP series. We work on large flatbed machines that require much more expertise and knowledge. Guess we need to up the pricing!

 

[Grizzly]

Hmmm Id never pay a tech more just so I could watch or help. Most of them enjoy getting to talked to and appreciate the help. Their pay isn’t going to change based on how close you monitor them. I ask for updates and what they’re doing. If they’re on the clock at those rates I like to know what’s going on.

 

[BVG]

Océ charges us AUD$300/hr or part thereof. We had an ink solenoid fail two weeks back. Diagnosed the entire problem ourselves. Logged the call, they sent the tech out with the part we requested. 15 minutes later it was installed with an invoice for $300 + parts. It's an inevitable part of our industry and should be accounted for in budgets.

Did you have him stay and sweep the floors for the other 45 minutes?

 

[MikePro]

seems about right for pricing, hence why I've been replaing my own printheads and misc parts since <2005.
...and my compressor repair guy charges the same. pays to DIY, but service comes with peace of mind (and a pricetag)

 

[buggyjr12]

I wasn't looking over his shoulder or trying to help; I was working on other things. But, when you're in the same room with somebody for five hours, conversations happen. And, when two strangers converse, the topic usually drifts towards something they both have in common, which, in this case, was vinyl printers/the sign business.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Did you have him stay and sweep the floors for the other 45 minutes?

Hah, he arrived at 5pm on a Friday to resolve an issue that was preventing us from hitting a deadline... the sooner he left the quicker we could finish the job.
I was just appreciative enough that he actually dropped into the workshop on the way home from a job in Canberra to get the issue sorted quickly.

 

[dsignerchic]

I wanted to post an update on my not so fun service appointment on Tuesday. Tech was super nice and let me tag along and ask questions etc. He got the new caps, ink pump and washer holder in and we were only at like 2 hours and just had to install encoder strip and sensor. Smooth sailing until the sensor isn't fitting right, he tweaked it a little with a screwdriver and then it started making this screeching noice while trying to do the position initialize. He greased the rails to no avail and then it just refused to complete the setup with error message "Unrecoverable limit sensor". Now we are at the 4th hour of labor and my Roland had "died on the operating table" as he said. He thinks the sensor shorted out a board or ribbon and said the light on the sensor is no longer coming on. I always knew the risk when opening up this old beast and believe it wasnt his fault. The good news is I was only charged half of what the original quote was and they are throwing in a full set of ink cartridges on my new purchase. This is my first printer and I never realized till now how dependant and attached I was! I almost feel like I've lost a friend lol..
So here I sit with this big, old, dead Roland in my office and I have no idea what to do with it?? It worked great right up until that %#* sensor went in and has several new parts. How would I go about selling this? Tech said with new board and ribbons (and sensor!) it could be up and running again but the labor costs wouldnt be worth it to me. Do I send it to the dump or try to find a buyer?

Thank you so much for all your input prior, I learn a ton from you guys on here!

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Somehow that doesn't sound kosher... but that SP300 is a tiny printer with limited use in the sign world so I guess it's a good time to upgrade. List it online on CL or eBay, someone would pick it up.