Has Anyone Sued Their Digital Press Manufacturer for Downtime?

The funny thing about our current situation is even Xerox admits that those who help the customer the least are the ones who get promoted. Our previous Field Manager who manages all of our service tech's was horrible and they all knew it. We now have a new manager because she was promoted within Xerox. Now we have dealt with her boss who made an appointment with us and made promises out of his a**. He had an analyst with him and we scheduled the analyst to come out. They agreed if they couldn't fix the problem they would replace the unit. That was 2 months ago and the machine has been down these 2 months. The analyst initially backed out of our original date saying he couldnt meet with us anymore because he had to do an install at a larger company with 2 igens and we weren't as important. He wanted to reschedule for a week later. When we called the manager to discuss this with him he had no idea the analyst wasn't at our shop that day because he never bothered to follow up again. Xerox is horrible ( and this goes for everybody we have dealt with. We have had 3 different sales rep's and service technicians and managers) at returning or answering phone calls. They never follow up on our issues. We requested that it be noted that we wished to never have a specific tech at our location and he had bothered us enough that we thought about taking legal action against him. They promised us it would be noted on his record and that he would never show up again. Two weeks later he showed up at our doorstep and still managed to be a complete a**hole. When we called Xerox they told us they made a mistake and nothing had been noted on his record. We are still down. Now that we are doing close to 75k clicks a month they are wanting to keep our business all of the sudden. It will be funny when it comes time to buy an iGen and we end up with a couple of Indigo's or MGI Meteor DP60s. They have definitely lost our future business because they rely on their business model to keep customers coming back. They fail to remember that they have to live up to their service guarantee's and that if their machines do not work that nothing else matters.

I understand that certain people will always have problems that they can't get resolved. Unfortunately we would be fools to let Xerox burn us again. We have purchased a second machine on the open market because they couldnt fix our first machine and the only person trying to contact us from Xerox is still trying to sell us a machine. They have slowed their process of putting the machine in our name almost trying to force us to buy a machine through their used certified program. We have had a machine delivered and installed in our shop now for 2 weeks and we can't use it because they are taking forever to get the machine into our name and under our customer #. We can't even get the machine inspected in the meantime due to their backward workflow. Now if the machine doesn't meet the requirements to go under a service contract we will have wasted 2 weeks and will have to return the machine to the person from whom we are purchasing from. Seems to me that they should be able to inspect before placing the machine in our name.... but i guess thats the way xerox works.

We do however have legal documents drawn up and logs of our own for our downtime. We do not plan to go away quietly. They have almost ran our small company into the ground. They have told us that small companies obviously come second to them and that if their tech gets an emergency call on an igen even though we had been down for months prior to setting up our meeting that we are second place. I would definitely warn any small company that is told by xerox that a used machine is the way to go to be very very careful. If the machine doesn't work very well they will blame you for buying a used machine even though they certified it.

That is all for my Quick Reply.
 
"Their technicians have a lot of trouble resolving problems for known hardware issues. Too many managers are completely ineffective and some could care less........down time just doesn't matter."

RE Kodak.

Here in the UK I've worked with some of their techs and I have to say I haven't been impressed. Their technical knowledge has been lacking somewhat on some CTP and one of the techs even fabricated what I had said, to my boss, in an attempt to subvert the standard course of production claiming I had said we weren't putting their product on press when in fact I had never said such a thing and the product we had produced was in fact being mounted.

Luckily for them their plate product was very good and I suspect the company I worked for at the time have since used them as a bargaining option to drive down their own plate prices with their current supplier.
 
Ahh the age-old debate:
The discrepancy between what the customer wanted, what the sales guy sold and reality land in the installed product.
 
I don't know about any manufacturer who's has been sued, but I hate to hear about someone's business being destroyed by rubbish service. You would think that in this business environment they would be hell bent on servicing the heck out of their customers.
I'm an Offset guy but I have been in shops with multiple HP digital machines. They apparently were all rented from HP, why don't you find out if you can make a deal with them and save your business. From what I could see they were swift to react to a problem and the service guys seemed to be really good.
Best of luck to you
 
Hell bent on service...

Hell bent on service...

Our problem isn't the service. We have had a guy out here daily at our shop. The problem is that their contract says if they can't fix it they will replace it. We are just wondering how long we are supposed to wait before the machine gets replaced.
 
I hope Xerox finally steps up to the plate to resolve the problems. Fortunately, our manager and service techs are very good.

Unfortunately, too many of the prinergy and trendsetter techs 'work' on the problem - they don't actually 'solve' the problem. How is this acceptable to Kodak, especially when it turns out to be a known issue?

Preps and Prinergy techs are one and the same. Their call center has 'worked' on this Preps problem for 3 months, and a manager is involved:
Dongle Problem - Page 2 - GUA Forums

Kodak was contacted but failed to keep the presses printing:
http://printplanet.com/forums/computer-plate/20449-ctp-problem-no-one-world-can-fix-any-takers/2

Kodak needs to do something about this kind of poor support for Creo equipment.
 
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replacement printer

replacement printer

Ahhhh......... it feels good. We will see how much better our new like-for-like printer really is but it can't be worse than the machine we have had. It only took us a year to get this one replaced and about 8 months of that as actual down time but now its nice to know that we don't have to move a broken machine into our new facility
 
With the exception of 1 post, has anyone else noticed the lack of presence by those representing manufactures/dealers? It's funny how they are the first to jump on the topic and blow about how good they are but when they are getting slammed (rightfully so) for piss poor service/equipment they mysteriously disappear???

Quite a pattern they are developing :rolleyes:
 
Yes, I always had to put right what our supplier techs made wrong each time they did a service.

Disintegrating rubber roller paper grippers, loosened gripper arm unit, poor star quality where their perceived laser power and pwm adjustments are just a few to mention.

I'd suggest to any company to get their own techs and get them trained on the kit they buy.
 
I know Canon has a kit you can buy, I think it is pretty cheap... may be worth getting if this service issue is destroying your business.
 
Customer Expectation Document. With production equipment most companies including Canon Business Solutions require the customer to sign this document before processing the sale. However, many sales people don't bother and the order processing people let it go.
 
With the exception of 1 post, has anyone else noticed the lack of presence by those representing manufactures/dealers? It's funny how they are the first to jump on the topic and blow about how good they are but when they are getting slammed (rightfully so) for piss poor service/equipment they mysteriously disappear???

I think it's hard for any vendor to comment generally on service, as every situation is unique especially depending on geographic location. Service in Los Angeles is different from service in Houston, and is different from service in London.

with all brands, you'll find happy and unhappy customers. The "perfect machine" does not exist, nor the "perfect operator", nor the "perfect paper", nor the "perfect environment", etc.
 
RE customer expectations

RE customer expectations

It is reasonable to expect any manufacturer to fix their equipment when its broken - thats basic support. It is reasonable to expect the manufacturer technicians to be knowledgeable in KNOWN ISSUES and work to resolve those that aren't.

After contacting Kodak for a problem with Creo equipment all too often the tech finger points - some claim to be 'experts' - and doesn't solve the problem. I ask other printers and even google for solutions only to find out its a KNOWN ISSUE.

I think my expectations are reasonable.
 
X33 I personally don't think it's asking too much for a vendor to have a representative at least show some concern with regards to others issues. I will also be the first to say that many issues are brought on by the operators or environment, not necessarily the equipment. As a customer it feels like we are left hanging to dry all too often!
 
I really hoped that one of the positive things that would come of this economic slowdown would be that companies would step up on their customer service and try extra hard to keep customers and to resolve customer complaints and concerns. Unfortunately my experience has been, that for the most part, they still are operating under the mentality that business is great and they can treat customers anyway they would like. Sad isn't it when we spend the money that we do on equipment, that we are not even recognized by them for what we are, their bread and butter.
 
I am doubting that some rep or tech can just shoot off solutions or suggestions on a site like this. They probably are bound to deal only with issues that are local to them. In big companies like Kodak, Xerox, Canon I am sure its not always so easy to find the right solution every time.

They are accountable to their company and print providers, for the most part are only accountable to themselves. Heaven forbid they post something wrong that could cost their companies a law suit or get them fired.

It would be nice to have a rep that has complete control over the entire process and be a perfect 10 on technology issues as it would be in their best interest to be. Unfortunately, they just don't.
 
I really hoped that one of the positive things that would come of this economic slowdown would be that companies would step up on their customer service and try extra hard to keep customers and to resolve customer complaints and concerns. Unfortunately my experience has been, that for the most part, they still are operating under the mentality that business is great and they can treat customers anyway they would like. Sad isn't it when we spend the money that we do on equipment, that we are not even recognized by them for what we are, their bread and butter.

The problem with the economic downturn is that companies are sacking people and expecting more from what is left without the perks they were accustomed to in the good times. Managers are applying pressure on reps and techs are treated like liabilities. If you are treated like crap then why would you consider for a moment to go out of your way for anyone else? Don't get me wrong I would go out of my way for my customer, my workplace however, could burn to the ground for all I care.
 
Uber, I would actually get a KM device if I knew there were techs like you in my area! You and I have had mixed words, but I respect the fact that you always seem to go the extra step for us (owners). It very unfortunate that the manufactures are more worried about getting the latest and greatest box released and seem to care very little about what happens after they actually sell it. We get stuck with the issues, not them!
 

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