Beware of Printware

C

calvarystand

Member
Bought an IJet NXT last year from Printware. The sales Rep was very knowledgable and even gave our Ministry a small discount. It was why I bought from Printware instead of Formax. Just a little over $1000 cheaper. Now I wish I had bought from Formax. My hard drive went out on the computer they supplied for the press. I thought, no big deal, I will just replace the hard drive and re-install the software. Turns out, they told me the hard drive, motherboard, and software were keyed to the dongle. So, I could not just replace the hard drive. I had to let them do it, and it would be $4,500. They said that was my only choice. TO GIVE ME SOFTWARE I ALREADY BOUGHT WHEN I GOT THE MACHINE! So, I complained. After a while I was told they could send me a new dongle for $500. I guess it wasn't my only choice. After I complained, they sent me a link to download their print driver and now I am just printing straight from Acrobat. So far it's easier and faster to just use acrobat than use that odd web based software. I don't want to buy anything else from this company. Does anyone know if the ink, printheads etc are chipped to keep me from buying supplies elsewhere?
 
If you are using the software mColor which uses a Harlequin RIP called Navigator, I would try contacting the manufacture of that software direct. They are call Xitron and they have a forum you can use to get some help. They might be able to help you out. I do not go through our hardware suppliers for help with software anymore in regards to our Mach 6 devices. I go direct to Xitron.
 
gregbatch said:
Hard drive failure after 1 year and $4,500 to fix it? I just threw my sample packs in the trash. Not interested.
Click to expand...

Always 2 sides to a story... Just like our fiery's, backups are our responsibility to make and maintain. Maybe someone will chime in that has Printware Xitron and knows firsthand about this boondougle.
 
Wow, that’s like reverse software piracy. Even backing up your hard drive wouldn’t help if your drive fails because they have all the hardware and software tied to the dongle. Either they truly are pirates or someone isn’t giving you the right information. Either way I’ll be staying away from Printware.
 
calvarystand said:
Bought an IJet NXT last year from Printware. The sales Rep was very knowledgable and even gave our Ministry a small discount. It was why I bought from Printware instead of Formax. Just a little over $1000 cheaper. Now I wish I had bought from Formax. My hard drive went out on the computer they supplied for the press. I thought, no big deal, I will just replace the hard drive and re-install the software. Turns out, they told me the hard drive, motherboard, and software were keyed to the dongle. So, I could not just replace the hard drive. I had to let them do it, and it would be $4,500. They said that was my only choice. TO GIVE ME SOFTWARE I ALREADY BOUGHT WHEN I GOT THE MACHINE! So, I complained. After a while I was told they could send me a new dongle for $500. I guess it wasn't my only choice. After I complained, they sent me a link to download their print driver and now I am just printing straight from Acrobat. So far it's easier and faster to just use acrobat than use that odd web based software. I don't want to buy anything else from this company. Does anyone know if the ink, printheads etc are chipped to keep me from buying supplies elsewhere?
Click to expand...
I have an Ijet Color Classic, I hear Printware are just middlemen now, everything is marked up crazy! I am almost thinking of defaulting on my lease with this garbage. Cheap tiny little parts, maintenance is very time consuming and messy! With that being said I bought an Afinia printhead on Ebay for about $250 less then Printware's price, and it's been working. I am looking for Ink now as they want $399 per cartridge and you'll have about 25% and the next thing you know it say's it empty.
 
Printware is terrible. Half of the controls on the interface are not designed to work with the iJet which makes operating the software very confusing and complicated since it's tricky to figure out which settings actually do anything. The integration is terrible.
I also agree the maintenance is time consuming and messy. I was chuckling when they started explaining the maintenance steps because 90% of people aren't going to do it. It's an absurd amount to expect customers to do, if I had known ahead of time I would not have purchased the machine and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
 
I visited their office a couple years ago before making my decision. I was excited to see their equipment. However, after meeting some of these people in person, I knew this was not the company to do business with. I get their marketing emails all the time. They outright lie in them. They do not have the most economical or fastest envelope printer on the market for under $100k. It's false advertising and if the competing vendors wanted to, there'd be a nice lawsuit on their hands.
I got off those ridiculously priced waffle cartridges and print heads years ago. Fortunately our volume gave me the option to see through this ponzi scheme and opt for larger equipment. There are other OEM sources for consumables that are more reasonable, you just have to do a bit of research to find them.
 
Tony T said:
What company do you buy the ink from? Website?
Click to expand...
www.addrex.com

Addrex

Addrex is your premiere source for Mailing Equipment, Paper Handling Equipment, Address Printers, Folder Inserters, Paper Folding Machines, Mailing and Wide Format Media Supplies, plus much more!
www.addrex.com

I also used that printhead without issue as well.
 
printing656 said:
I visited their office a couple years ago before making my decision. I was excited to see their equipment. However, after meeting some of these people in person, I knew this was not the company to do business with. I get their marketing emails all the time. They outright lie in them. They do not have the most economical or fastest envelope printer on the market for under $100k. It's false advertising and if the competing vendors wanted to, there'd be a nice lawsuit on their hands.
I got off those ridiculously priced waffle cartridges and print heads years ago. Fortunately our volume gave me the option to see through this ponzi scheme and opt for larger equipment. There are other OEM sources for consumables that are more reasonable, you just have to do a bit of research to find them.
Click to expand...

namelessentity said:
www.addrex.com

Addrex

Addrex is your premiere source for Mailing Equipment, Paper Handling Equipment, Address Printers, Folder Inserters, Paper Folding Machines, Mailing and Wide Format Media Supplies, plus much more!
www.addrex.com

I also used that printhead without issue as well.
Click to expand...
Yeah I bought a printhead on ebay that seems to be working fine. Do you have the Ijet Color Classic?
 
Hmm, I could not be happier with our 1175P. We averaged 132,000/month on this device in 2022. It has less issues than our large production presses, maintenance is next to nothing and consumables are allowing for a nice profit. Customer service has been spot on when we needed them.
My question is, were the consumable costs considered when you made the purchase? If so what is the complaint? You knew going in the cost to produce the envelope, you purchased based on that, so mark up accordingly to be profitable. It's like buying a car that gets 12MPG and complaining about how much gas you use.
 
Craig said:
Hmm, I could not be happier with our 1175P. We averaged 132,000/month on this device in 2022. It has less issues than our large production presses, maintenance is next to nothing and consumables are allowing for a nice profit. Customer service has been spot on when we needed them.
My question is, were the consumable costs considered when you made the purchase? If so what is the complaint? You knew going in the cost to produce the envelope, you purchased based on that, so mark up accordingly to be profitable. It's like buying a car that gets 12MPG and complaining about how much gas you use.
Click to expand...
I don’t think the OP is complaining about the cost of ink. It’s the sky high price that Printware wants him to pay to be able to use the software he already paid for after a hard drive failure. He can backup his drive every hour but if it fails he can’t simply image a new drive because they or another vendor have everything tied to a dongle. So backing up a hard drive in this situation is almost useless. Now he just doesn’t want to give Printware anymore business and I can’t blame him.
 
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