What are you doing with your 25500/26000s?

[Asuma01]

Just got this email today as luck would have it.

Re: Onsite Support Changes: Effective January 2, 2019

Affected Printers: HP Latex 100/200/300/500 Series that are Out of Warranty or No Active Service Agreement only; US Customers only


Dear Valued Customer,


Effective January 2, 2018, HP will move to a fixed onsite repair fee for the above-captioned HP Latex printers. This fee includes *all labor and parts necessary to repair your printer. This applies only to products that do not have an active warranty, CarePack, or service contract coverage.


My Printer Needs to be Repaired…

How will this work?

During a remote support engagement (required), if it is determined an onsite visit is required, you will be transferred to a representative to process a fixed onsite service fee for the onsite case. Your case will then be dispatched to an onsite field engineer.

• Credit card required for next business day service
• Service Maintenance Kits (SMK) & consumables are not included
• Next Business Day response is not available in all US geographies

What does the Fixed Rate cover?



Three New Fixed Rate Options:

• 3-5 Business Day Response
  • *Includes Labor and Parts necessary to repair your printer
  • Fixed Event Fee of $1500

• 1-2 Business Day Response
  • *Includes Labor and Parts necessary to repair your printer
  • Fixed Event Fee of $2000

• 1-2 Business Day Response – Discounted
  • *Includes Labor and Parts necessary to repair your printer
  • Was $2000, Discounted to a Fixed Rate of $899
  • Requires a purchase of a 12-months Full Service Agreement

*Some exclusions may apply.


Thank you for your continued loyalty.


Graphics Solutions Service Customer Care

 

[ColoPrinthead]

Damn, tossing out the 850s too without allowing an upgrade to a new ink set, that is something else!

 

[DPD]

I don't think it includes the L26500.

It uses the same ink and print heads as :

HP 792
Printer Compatibility
HP Latex 210
HP Latex 260
HP Latex 280

And yes, if they stop supporting my L26500 while it still works well, my next printer would not be an HP.

It's more than the inks that are being discontinued. Its everything: parts, printheads, and inks.

 

[StarSign]

We just took our 26500 to the dump.......

 

[Wide Image Solutions]

We repair all Hp designjets including all Latex units. We still buy the L26500 and L28500. Plus hundreds of 300 series. We might be the only ones as well that accept trade ins towards newer and better Hp designjets. Anyone need anything including repairs, parts, and consumables, we have it all. thx Wideimagesolutions.com

 

[Wide Image Solutions]

We just took our 26500 to the dump.......

You need anything in Hp latex printers, please let us know. thx Wideimagesolutions.com

 

[Wide Image Solutions]

It's more than the inks that are being discontinued. Its everything: parts, printheads, and inks.

Anything you might need for your Hp L26500, please let us know. We have it all!! parts, supplies, trade ins towards newer units, and more...thx Wideimagesolutions.com

 

[stew1tx]

Out of curiosity, did anyone ever try or think to try running newer inks or heads in older printers? I am quite sure it would be a task but likely to work....

 

[balstestrat]

Out of curiosity, did anyone ever try or think to try running newer inks or heads in older printers? I am quite sure it would be a task but likely to work....

Well first of all it wont work.
Ink is totally different, you can't use it without optimizer. Cartridge is different design and you would need to manual reload the ink to the old cartridge or something and you still have the chip...
Printheads are different and won't work because they are chipped..

 

[EugeneZ]

Well first of all it wont work.
Ink is totally different, you can't use it without optimizer. Cartridge is different design and you would need to manual reload the ink to the old cartridge or something and you still have the chip...
Printheads are different and won't work because they are chipped..

But at the same time, it is possible to use consumables from the 300 series. Ink works without optimizer, you only need to force the printer to accept 831 cartridges (chips from aliexpress or carefully read the user manual and make the printer work with "empty" cartridges). It is more difficult with the printheads, since they have different colors. But I know that some people buy a light printhead, wash it with distilled water, glue the chip from the old (not working) printhead and rearrange the ink port. So you can prolong the agony, but as for me it is better to update the park with new HP Latex, they do not just stain the media, you can earn money on them.

 

[balstestrat]

But at the same time, it is possible to use consumables from the 300 series. Ink works without optimizer, you only need to force the printer to accept 831 cartridges (chips from aliexpress or carefully read the user manual and make the printer work with "empty" cartridges). It is more difficult with the printheads, since they have different colors. But I know that some people buy a light printhead, wash it with distilled water, glue the chip from the old (not working) printhead and rearrange the ink port. So you can prolong the agony, but as for me it is better to update the park with new HP Latex, they do not just stain the media, you can earn money on them.

Yeah alright okay. No clue who would want to waste their time doing all this but I guess it's possible....

 

[MachServTech]

I think there is a known life for some of the components internal to the L25500 that will be difficult to service. That being said I think that it is stupid for them not to have an exit strategy for these customers. It's not very good customer relations and HP forgets we have these older printers kicking around in our shops in addition to making new capital investments. Leaves a bad taste. On the other hand, how long should we expect them to support obsolete hardware? the L25500 was introduced in 2008/9 ...so that's a while ago.

 

[balstestrat]

I think there is a known life for some of the components internal to the L25500 that will be difficult to service. That being said I think that it is stupid for them not to have an exit strategy for these customers. It's not very good customer relations and HP forgets we have these older printers kicking around in our shops in addition to making new capital investments. Leaves a bad taste. On the other hand, how long should we expect them to support obsolete hardware? the L25500 was introduced in 2008/9 ...so that's a while ago.

I'm just asking but do you know why they had to end the ink production? It wasn't just because "they wanted to kill the old products".
And they do have a strategy, just buy a new one.
Almost all of the <L260 are older than 5 years anyway. Especially those L25500.

 

[P Wagner]

I'm just asking but do you know why they had to end the ink production? It wasn't just because "they wanted to kill the old products".
And they do have a strategy, just buy a new one.
Almost all of the <L260 are older than 5 years anyway. Especially those L25500.

Latex 26500/ 260 was obsoleted and replaced by Latex 300 Series in April 2014 - 6.5 years ago.

 

[balstestrat]

Latex 26500/ 260 was obsoleted and replaced by Latex 300 Series in April 2014 - 6.5 years ago.

Doesn't mean that there wasn't still some old stock and demo units sold way later than that exact date.

 

[P Wagner]

Doesn't mean that there wasn't still some old stock and demo units sold way later than that exact date.

Perhaps a couple of months, certainly not years

 

[balstestrat]

Perhaps a couple of months, certainly not years

Okay I see it was the "almost all" that did catch you. Let's take that out and I think we can agree, right. My bad.
I know one that was sold late 14 and delivered even later because of some delay. Not everyone wants to buy the new stuff on day one anyways.
Roland still selling their SP series today even with the VG out for couple years, crazy right.

 

[MachServTech]

I'm just asking but do you know why they had to end the ink production? It wasn't just because "they wanted to kill the old products".
And they do have a strategy, just buy a new one.
Almost all of the <L260 are older than 5 years anyway. Especially those L25500.

I think they will maintain the L26500 for quite a while longer. There were some design issues on the first generation and I think I understand why they are discontinuing. They are still workhorses though and they should have had a better plan for ink.

 

[balstestrat]

I think they will maintain the L26500 for quite a while longer.

No it's basically already "End of life" for L26500. You can't get ink or consumables any more (genuine) from HP.
I think it's the same thing with spare parts, you can only get them if they are in stock. If the part is out of stock you can't get it any longer.

 

[MachServTech]

No it's basically already "End of life" for L26500. You can't get ink or consumables any more (genuine) from HP.
I think it's the same thing with spare parts, you can only get them if they are in stock. If the part is out of stock you can't get it any longer.

You are absolutely correct. L26500 is EOL and also a crappy decision for inks to be discontinued.