Straight talk about Ricoh Pro c901 registration

[jrsc]

These Ricoh machines have the ability to work correctly and produce good results. And Ricoh has the resources to fix problems like these and get machines preforming correctly again. The problem with Ricoh is there is a management and internal structure problem that makes it almost impossible to get the people that can solve these problems to the customer with the problem.

For example I've had a problem for several months. I connected with enough people at Ricoh I've actually been able to talk to a couple higher level technical guys. They tell me they have an easy procedure they can do and it will solve the problem quickly and easily. But they can't work with me to do it because they would be going around local service. Local service doesn't have the resources to fix the problem. I tell them to talk to the technical guy I talked to so he can walk them through it. Their response is that service doesn't have access to that guy.

So basically the local people that fix the machines and the high level technical people that know how to fix the more complex or unusual problems don't have access to each other and aren't able to work together to help a customer.

Maybe someone from Ricoh can post on here why there is such a disconnect and if they have any plans to fix it.

 

[Craig]

It's the same with other manufacture direct/dealer relationships. The manufacture will not compete with the dealer and the dealer has too big of an ego to ask the manufacture for help. Then people like you and I get stuck. In the end both the manufacture and dealer win cause they both got the sale!

 

[[email protected]]

So if you're serviced by a Ricoh dealer they DO have access to 2nd level tech support but depending on their financial arrangement with Ricoh it might actually cost them extra to engage them hence the reluctance to do so.

 

[jrsc]

It's the same with other manufacture direct/dealer relationships. The manufacture will not compete with the dealer and the dealer has too big of an ego to ask the manufacture for help. Then people like you and I get stuck. In the end both the manufacture and dealer win cause they both got the sale!

My comments were actually referring to Ricoh direct, not a dealer. It's all one organization with everyone's paychecks coming from the same place and they still can't work with themselves. I'd hate to see what its like for a dealer to get any kind of help but with the as messed up as the internal structure is I wouldn't be surprised if dealers had better access to resources then people who actually work for Ricoh.

 

[msaeger]

My comments were actually referring to Ricoh direct, not a dealer. It's all one organization with everyone's paychecks coming from the same place and they still can't work with themselves. I'd hate to see what its like for a dealer to get any kind of help but with the as messed up as the internal structure is I wouldn't be surprised if dealers had better access to resources then people who actually work for Ricoh.

Do you know if the office servicing you has a dedicated production team? We always have here and I think that makes a big difference. If you don't now that could be changing.

 

[[email protected]]

Since you are working for Ricoh direct I would suggest getting your salesperson involved to run interference for you. The process is that when necessary local service can request 2nd level support as required.

My comments were actually referring to Ricoh direct, not a dealer. It's all one organization with everyone's paychecks coming from the same place and they still can't work with themselves. I'd hate to see what its like for a dealer to get any kind of help but with the as messed up as the internal structure is I wouldn't be surprised if dealers had better access to resources then people who actually work for Ricoh.

 

[jrsc]

Do you know if the office servicing you has a dedicated production team? We always have here and I think that makes a big difference. If you don't now that could be changing.

We do not have a dedicated production service team, just production sales. They are supposed to transition soon to a production sales team but I still see it very questionable if they can do any better. It's still the same regional director of service. Our technicians will stay the same but have a new service manager but that service manager still reports to the same regional director as our current service manager. The technicians will also have larger territories to cover.

 

[jrsc]

Since you are working for Ricoh direct I would suggest getting your salesperson involved to run interference for you. The process is that when necessary local service can request 2nd level support as required.

Done that and his manager and his manager and several other people. The higher you go the harder it is to work with them because they don't understand what is actually going on. I did get somebody else today to come work on the current problem and are still working to resolve it but I can't get anything from them to make sure problems are addressed in the future.

 

[cosmo]

very sorry to say, but, it is a digital machine with no proper feeder and IT WILL ALWAYS MOVE no matter what they say, .5mm is an outrageous claim on heavy board, if you just look at the path the paper takes it has no real stability, ive learned to live with 1-2mm. Compromise seems to be more the norm. It surprises me at all these new machines they make, you would think that would be there number one aim, perfect registration, alas, not the case.

 

[printfreq]

When the machine is on it's on. On good days, which seem to be totally random, the machine can sustain front to back registration of around .5mm. Heat and humidity in my shop is consistent and I can't really find a connection. It seems to have a mind of it's own.

The current main problem is that the registration drifts. For instance, I can print a job that was doing fine and nearly dead on the previous day with the same registration settings the following day and have it close to 2mm off front to back. The machine seems to require at least 200 sheets of warm up period before the registration will drift back to the previous day's settings. This is annoying and a major time killer.

Ricoh's answer to this?

"It might be a roller expanding or contracting due to internal heat."

Their fix to this annoying problem?

NOTHING.