Which printer vendor has the best support?

[Fooroogelm]

As I have realized for myself - the technical characteristics of the printer are not as important as the ability to quickly repair it.
I bet on one brand - thinking that after all it was a "native mass North American brand".
Zero.
Is this the case with support for everyone? For the time and prices that this brand delivers parts to me, I can personally fly to China and back. And also drink beer + massage.

 

[balstestrat]

Nobody can answer you that. It simply depends how well your local reseller keeps stock of spare parts.
If they don't have it in stock it's always +1 day to overnight or anything over that.
So maybe visit your local guys and ask them to show their spare part stock, see how well it looks. Or do they just say they always order it.

I can get 95% of parts next day from HP. But there's always something that will take couple days longer and sometimes it even ships straight from Asia.

 

[Bxtr]

We've had good luck with our Epson printers, there was a tech less than 2 hours away who would get to really quickly. Epson also would overnight three boxes the size of a small microwave, so if the tech needed more parts he had them.
Now our tech is 6 hours away but still gets to us pretty quickly, I don't think we've had an issue with an Epson where it's been completely down. Other than our previous printers reaching end of life.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I have had great luck with Epson. I get mine from IT Supplies. The Epson techs for the flatbed are great!

 

[victor bogdanov]

All printers break and every brand can take longer than expected to repair. Best option is to have more than one printer or have outsourcing figured out before a breakdown. have to have a backup plan

 

[BigNate]

This really really depends on your local market and local talent... unless you are going to be flying in talent from elsewhere, ask around see who has had good service. In the Offset world there were regions that swore by A.B. Dicks, others by Heidelberg, others Chiefs (for small duplicating/quick print shops) the real difference I can see is where a good smart entrepreneur started - the brand selected thrived. All 3 manufactures made good duplicators each with their Positives and Negatives.... Support made the difference. (in our wide format world, all major manufactures make equipment that is good - not perfect - every brand can have a 'lemon'.... service talent/knowledge will make the difference)

Ask around. Get a good maintenance contract, include this in your pricing this is not an optional expense unless you are a fully experienced tech. Put terms in the contract so you can hold their feet to the fire if your machine is down and you are losing work.... (I get a payment to the shop when a tech takes longer than an hour to get here - the terms can be whatever you want/ all parties agree to.)

 

[JBurton]

So, have you looked into subbing print jobs to one of the wholesalers on here? No reason to turn down work, just find a different way to make it work.

 

[netsol]

This really really depends on your local market and local talent... unless you are going to be flying in talent from elsewhere, ask around see who has had good service. In the Offset world there were regions that swore by A.B. Dicks, others by Heidelberg, others Chiefs (for small duplicating/quick print shops) the real difference I can see is where a good smart entrepreneur started - the brand selected thrived. All 3 manufactures made good duplicators each with their Positives and Negatives.... Support made the difference. (in our wide format world, all major manufactures make equipment that is good - not perfect - every brand can have a 'lemon'.... service talent/knowledge will make the difference)

Ask around. Get a good maintenance contract, include this in your pricing this is not an optional expense unless you are a fully experienced tech. Put terms in the contract so you can hold their feet to the fire if your machine is down and you are losing work.... (I get a payment to the shop when a tech takes longer than an hour to get here - the terms can be whatever you want/ all parties agree to.)

i've never had anything bad to say about a heidelberg

 

[BigNate]

i've never had anything bad to say about a heidelberg

I have never had anything bad to say about a Heidelberg either - I had a TOK at the house for many years.... But when I ran them for BYU-H there really was no service techs local, when we needed one it was a minimum of $6k just to open a ticket and get the tech there. And we really tried to avoid it. Unfortunately we needed it a few times when motherboards started acting up.... the Heidelbergs we used in Hawaii were 'gifts' from the mainland. If it had been up to me we would have run A.B. Dicks, Hamada or Ryobi -- just due to the logistics of parts/service/supplies. All of those duplicators could make good prints.

 

[CMYKENGINEERING]

This really really depends on your local market and local talent... unless you are going to be flying in talent from elsewhere, ask around see who has had good service. In the Offset world there were regions that swore by A.B. Dicks, others by Heidelberg, others Chiefs (for small duplicating/quick print shops) the real difference I can see is where a good smart entrepreneur started - the brand selected thrived. All 3 manufactures made good duplicators each with their Positives and Negatives.... Support made the difference. (in our wide format world, all major manufactures make equipment that is good - not perfect - every brand can have a 'lemon'.... service talent/knowledge will make the difference)

Ask around. Get a good maintenance contract, include this in your pricing this is not an optional expense unless you are a fully experienced tech. Put terms in the contract so you can hold their feet to the fire if your machine is down and you are losing work.... (I get a payment to the shop when a tech takes longer than an hour to get here - the terms can be whatever you want/ all parties agree to.)

This is the correct answer. It depends on the region and possibly the distributor.

 

[ikarasu]

So, have you looked into subbing print jobs to one of the wholesalers on here? No reason to turn down work, just find a different way to make it work.

Unfortunately None of the wholesalers on here deal with Canada, We only have sinalite with a canadian presence. and they take a week for shipping, and charge $40 to ship a few hundred business cards... $100+ to ship banners... And their pricing is pretty expensive. You guys have it lucky with wholesalers in USA

 

[ddarlak]

This printer you have that gives you so much trouble, did you buy it used?