Who is happy with their printer dealer?

[Signed Out]

In upstate NY and currently not very happy with Roland, or our dealer. Printer has been down for over a week now, 2 techs have come out and they were supposed to be here again today but aren't... They still don't know exactly what is wrong with the printer, there is another thread posted on here about that issue though... http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?125800-Roland-quot-Service-Call-0110-quot

We spoke with our dealer about trading our printer in on a new either a xf or rf, but couldn't believe what they offered for trade on our other equipment.. 4 year old xj 540 with less than 800 hours on it....$1000 as is or $2500 max when back up and running if all the printheads are good, which they are. This was originally $27k. Since we'd be moving to a 64" printer if we traded in I got quotes for our plotter (gx500) and laminator (rs 1400), they offered $500 for plotter and $2500 for laminator. Is this a joke? Do rolands really lose their value that fast? Our laminator is worth more than our printer and plotter combined? WTF, oh and they have a refurbished xj 540 for sale for.... $15k? So needless to say, we won't be going that route.. Perhaps do a private sale but would much rather trade in for a FAIR value.

So with our printer still down and no clear end in sight, I'm wondering if anybody has great things to say about any dealers in or around upstate NY? Been looking very closely at the HP latex machines also, but have no idea about a dealer network or how good service is. If anybody can shed some light on that for me it would be appreciated. I did locate a reseller on HP's website and contacted them moments ago, waiting for a call back.

 

[threeputt]

We are not in upstate New York, but are happy with Denco Sales here in the Northwest. Our machine is under warranty and I had an issue with the feed and spoke with Roland techs on the phone twice and they then wrote a case number for it and had a guy come out. He was here for a couple of hours. Very competent and informative. Cured our issue.

Yes, you are correct. Most dealers don't/can't offer much for your equipment. We found that selling it direct to another shop works best. (sold our last Roland that way) Got $3500 bucks more than the dealer was offering.

Good luck.

 

[Gino]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but your numbers aren't making any sense. Based upon your calculations, you are averaging less than 4 hours a week on digital printing. Why do you even have one ??

Again, I'm not making fun of or telling you how to spend yur money, but that doesn't make sense.

For the record, our distributor went out of business, but our next roll-to-roll will be a Roland. They've been good to us, since our first one in 1995. We'll just find the best deal around, as we have a tech who is wonderful and has never hit a snag.​

 

[Signed Out]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but your numbers aren't making any sense. Based upon your calculations, you are averaging less than 4 hours a week on digital printing. Why do you even have one ??

Again, I'm not making fun of or telling you how to spend yur money, but that doesn't make sense.

For the record, our distributor went out of business, but our next roll-to-roll will be a Roland. They've been good to us, since our first one in 1995. We'll just find the best deal around, as we have a tech who is wonderful and has never hit a snag.​

We probably shouldn't have bought the printer when we did as a startup, but we did and hardly printed with it for the first year, year and a half. Also it was the tech that said 800 hours, Ididn't see for myself. We print much more now a days, and can't survive without a printer. Doing the math myself, yea I can't believe that number is correct. If it is, then I need to have a talk with the printer operator as he is always "busy"

 

[Gino]

We probably shouldn't have bought the printer when we did as a startup, but we did and hardly printed with it for the first year, year and a half. Also it was the tech that said 800 hours, Ididn't see for myself. We print much more now a days, and can't survive without a printer.

Like I said, I wasn't poking fun at you or anything, but at 4 hours a week average..... just seemed odd. I think once you need printing around 15 to 20 hours a week routinely, then you have to get one. Ideally 30 hours a week per printer. That being said, yesterday was the first day in I don't know how long, our flatbed didn't run the entire day. We never turned it on. Ya have days like that.


Good luck on your deal.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

GRIMCO, GRIMCO, GRIMCO, there are a couple shops around the new York area. Would just depend exactly how close they are to you. I have ran two latex machines at different shops both from Grimco and both with great customer service. Always have my machines taken care of in a quick and professional manner. Nobody dodging my phone calls or leading me on. GRIMCO.

 

[GAC05]

if you are going to stick with solvent you might want to keep your eye out for the next Mutoh promo.
Every quarter or so they put out a trade-in/upgrade offer that can go as high as $6k off when purchasing the 64" value jet.
As long as the trade-in is 30" or larger they don't care what brand or what condition it is in.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[player]

Contact Roland directly. They take this stuff seriously.

 

[rjssigns]

Contact Roland directly. They take this stuff seriously.

Not here. They should have shut him down, but didn't. Seems they think no one else is capable of selling their printers.

How would you feel if your dealer/rep would stop by for a visit then skate your clients? Hard to compete with someone that gets material, equipment and ink for cost...

I think Roland cured him of that, but I severed all ties years ago so can't be sure.

 

[geb]

I have to say Hyatts has been a good dealer, supplier for us, located in Buffalo. I think they deal with Mutoh printers.

George