Xerox Versant 80 Maintenance... How difficult is it?

[pippip]

I think it's clear the op can't afford / doesn't want a monthly repayment given the financial state they feel their currently in.

4p click on your current V80 sounds very low. I'd question any savings on keeping it going yourself out of contract as supplies could run more expensive.
I'd recommend seeing what the click rate might be on a 2nd hand V180 as I'd say you'll struggle there to match it.

i think all you can do is enquire about a new machine and costs etc knowing it will be 5 years.
Same for V180 costs etc knowing it's for 2 years and compare.

 

[azehnali]

if you service it yourself you will be paying much more than 4 p a sheet and you will have significant downtime
stick to what you know which is printing and leave the servicing to the professionals

 

[TJPrinter]

When I think about servicing my Xerox, I think about the bad toner issue that was blowing out drums left and right. It could have put me out of business if I had to pay for all the drums that I went through. I'm not a high volume user and I would estimate that the dealer has spend upwards of $9,000 on 2nd BTRs for my 280. Then there was the time Xerox had to replace several parts including the lasers on a 700 press, I can't even image what that would have set me back if I didn't have a contract.

I would spend the time and energy increasing revenue and profit instead of learning how to maintain the press, you'll be a happy printer if you do that.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

Listen to PricelineNegotiator. He knows what he's talking about.

The older a machine gets, the more things go wrong, the higher the cost to your service provider to maintain it, so you pay a higher click charge.

It costs much less for them to maintain a newer machine, so, your click charges are lower. In many cases, the savings in click charges alone makes up for the lease payment and then some. Free machine.

Our V180 has a ridiculous amount of parts that get thrown into it. I can't imagine having to pay for those myself. Getting the new machine is going to make your life much easier.

While I love Xerox, the V180 and V80 replacement parts seem to be increasingly remanufactured parts that are defective. If you get the older machine get the service contract too.

The only reason we haven't switched to a 280 yet is the technical lift to transfer all of our Hot Folders and imposition templates over, and the fact that the 180 is running smoothly.

 

[Milo Wilson]

Our V180 has a ridiculous amount of parts that get thrown into it. I can't imagine having to pay for those myself. Getting the new machine is going to make your life much easier.

While I love Xerox, the V180 and V80 replacement parts seem to be increasingly remanufactured parts that are defective. If you get the older machine get the service contract too.

The only reason we haven't switched to a 280 yet is the technical lift to transfer all of our Hot Folders and imposition templates over, and the fact that the 180 is running smoothly.

How many times are the parts that are thrown at a machine not bad at all. Maybe not diagnosing the problem properly?

 

[sidneykidney]

We were also forced into getting rid of our V80 and now have a V280 with long sheet feeder (up to 1200mm long) which uses the same parts but the click rate has reduced from 4.5p to 2p which we had taken into consideration.
Regarding your creases, I've had a similar problem with lighter materials and Xerox changed the decurler and Nip rollers.
Finally, I could be wrong but I thought that the Versant 180 has an end of life date of End of 2025.

 

[MailGuru]

At the shop I worked at before I retired, we were running (2) Versant 2100's. After about a year, the Fiery Hyper-RIP on one of them kept crashing. Technicians tried reloading it several time to no avail. They finally had to just replace it. Those Hyper-RIPs are $75,000 each. I'd hate to have to shell that out myself if I was doing my own maintenance & repair.

 

[namelessentity]

At the shop I worked at before I retired, we were running (2) Versant 2100's. After about a year, the Fiery Hyper-RIP on one of them kept crashing. Technicians tried reloading it several time to no avail. They finally had to just replace it. Those Hyper-RIPs are $75,000 each. I'd hate to have to shell that out myself if I was doing my own maintenance & repair.

to be fair, it's a lot like medical prices. Nothing about that rip costs 75000 to make. It's like 800 in PC parts with a massive inflated mark-up. Xerox recently replaced an SD card with software and it was billed as $250 for a $12 SD card.

 

[bcr]

Not meaning to be a dick but many of your posts on here are about problems with your equipment etc.

It sounds like you need to find a better supplier and get a newer machine on a full service contract, and then focus on growth and business development instead of learning to service an obsolete machine which, whilst technically useful will deliver zero business growth or development. It's a dead end.

If you can't afford to lease one basic production printer, is your business actually viable?

You talk about wanting to try and save up to buy something outright but having failed thus far and wanting to try again, this to me sounds like wishful thinking and questionable budgetary planning. With self servicing it's a bit like buying a luxury old car, you might throw increasing investment into fixing a machine which is only one expensive failure from being a total write off with no value to recoup from selling it, unlike a car which at least has parts scrap value.

 

[bcr]

to be fair, it's a lot like medical prices. Nothing about that rip costs 75000 to make. It's like 800 in PC parts with a massive inflated mark-up. Xerox recently replaced an SD card with software and it was billed as $250 for a $12 SD card.

Yea - but it's not like you can just build your own fiery is it?

 

[gazfocus]

Not meaning to be a dick but many of your posts on here are about problems with your equipment etc.

It sounds like you need to find a better supplier and get a newer machine on a full service contract, and then focus on growth and business development instead of learning to service an obsolete machine which, whilst technically useful will deliver zero business growth or development. It's a dead end.

If you can't afford to lease one basic production printer, is your business actually viable?

You talk about wanting to try and save up to buy something outright but having failed thus far and wanting to try again, this to me sounds like wishful thinking and questionable budgetary planning. With self servicing it's a bit like buying a luxury old car, you might throw increasing investment into fixing a machine which is only one expensive failure from being a total write off with no value to recoup from selling it, unlike a car which at least has parts scrap value.

I have to say I think your take is somewhat harsh. I have not said that I cannot afford to lease a new machine, I have said I don’t want to. I leased my Konica Minolta C3070 and managed the lease payments just fine but my preference is to not have lease payments if I can avoid them.

I bought my Xerox Versant 80 outright instead of leasing it and every other piece of equipment in our shop is owned outright from our two Mimaki CJV150’s, our roll label printers and label finisher, our two Intec cutters to our EBA guillotine and everything in between. It’s just a preference to not lease, that’s all.

The Versant 80 has been on a ‘full service contract’ since we got it. When I have asked for help with issues it’s been because the service provider has been painful to deal with at times and prefer us to self diagnose the faults with little guidance before sending an engineer out, so yes I do agree that perhaps we need to find a better supplier when looking for another machine.

I have said all along that self servicing isn’t a choice I would normally make. I have always been against self servicing and much prefer having the ability to just send an email or pick up the phone and have an engineer come out. I also find it much easier to price jobs knowing it’s costing me 4p per colour click etc rather than trying to work out how many sheets I got from a toner cartridge/drum/etc. I don’t like the idea of self servicing and never have but we have been dropped in it by the supplier with no warning and at the worst time, so we are just trying to make the best of an awkward situation at the moment.

 

[gazfocus]

Yea - but it's not like you can just build your own fiery is it?

In fairness, if it’s a pc component that’s gone (hard drive or memory for example), you can replace it but yes they are insanely expensive machines to replace.

When we bought our KM, it was brand new direct from Konica and the fiery was DOA. Had to wait for quite a while for a replacement to be delivered.

 

[TJPrinter]

It's pretty crappy that they won't honor the service contract to the end...shame on them!

 

[bcr]

I have to say I think your take is somewhat harsh. I have not said that I cannot afford to lease a new machine, I have said I don’t want to. I leased my Konica Minolta C3070 and managed the lease payments just fine but my preference is to not have lease payments if I can avoid them.

I bought my Xerox Versant 80 outright instead of leasing it and every other piece of equipment in our shop is owned outright from our two Mimaki CJV150’s, our roll label printers and label finisher, our two Intec cutters to our EBA guillotine and everything in between. It’s just a preference to not lease, that’s all.

The Versant 80 has been on a ‘full service contract’ since we got it. When I have asked for help with issues it’s been because the service provider has been painful to deal with at times and prefer us to self diagnose the faults with little guidance before sending an engineer out, so yes I do agree that perhaps we need to find a better supplier when looking for another machine.

I have said all along that self servicing isn’t a choice I would normally make. I have always been against self servicing and much prefer having the ability to just send an email or pick up the phone and have an engineer come out. I also find it much easier to price jobs knowing it’s costing me 4p per colour click etc rather than trying to work out how many sheets I got from a toner cartridge/drum/etc. I don’t like the idea of self servicing and never have but we have been dropped in it by the supplier with no warning and at the worst time, so we are just trying to make the best of an awkward situation at the moment.

It may be a bit harsh, but is it unfair? Not sure.

End of the day it's pretty shit they ended the contract early, but we're only talking four months early.

I guess you had hoped to renew it?

 

[MailGuru]

It all started about 5 or 6 years ago when Xerox made the unbelievably stupid decision to divest itself of all sales & service functions, and, divvy that out to dealers.

They've lost an enormous amount of market share and credibility ever since.