Bad Business Practices

[Nexus6]

Our business have used nothing but Roland DGA products since the beginning. We have been loyal and used only Roland parts and OEM inks.

Recently our Roland wide format printer starting acting up by running a cleaning cycle during every printing process. (there were no updates made to software or changes made to the machine) After much trouble shooting we found out that the chip on the OEM ink cartridges were bad and so the printer thought we were using 3rd party inks. When it detects 3rd party inks, it runs a cleaning cycle every feet or so to punish you and waste your time and ink, and once it recognizes a 3rd party ink, its a permanent thing.

After going back and forth with a Roland tech, in the end they just told us pretty much "we can't support you any more and you're on your own." I just wanted to warn you all about this. Its also always very difficult to get a hold of anyone at Roland for tech support. Our printer was 5+ years old and they said it reached end of life and was no longer supported. Our $18,000 investment is now worthless. Do not buy from Roland.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

there has to be a work around.

 

[rjssigns]

Chill out. Posting the same thing twice won't get you much love around here.
We get it, you're PO'ed but patience pays off here. Lots of sharp folks on this forum that will be along when they get a free minute.
BTW It's Friday. Call it a day, enjoy the weekend.

 

[Nexus6]

there has to be a work around.

I've tried researching this issue online, went back and forth with a roland tech and dealer. I have yet to find a solution, I hope someone here knows one. I plan on switching to HP if nothing can be done.

 

[Boudica]

I've tried researching this issue online, went back and forth with a roland tech and dealer. I have yet to find a solution, I hope someone here knows one. I plan on switching to HP if nothing can be done.

yah, switch to HP, they are sooo much better. good luck with that.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I've heard of Rolands doing more cleaning with 3rd party inks for sure but not permanently. Still a sketchy practice in my opinion. Have you tried resetting to factory defaults and recalibrating the printer?

 

[Zendavor Signs]

Our business have used nothing but Roland DGA products since the beginning. We have been loyal and used only Roland parts and OEM inks.

Recently our Roland wide format printer starting acting up by running a cleaning cycle during every printing process. (there were no updates made to software or changes made to the machine) After much trouble shooting we found out that the chip on the OEM ink cartridges were bad and so the printer thought we were using 3rd party inks. When it detects 3rd party inks, it runs a cleaning cycle every feet or so to punish you and waste your time and ink, and once it recognizes a 3rd party ink, its a permanent thing.

After going back and forth with a Roland tech, in the end they just told us pretty much "we can't support you any more and you're on your own." I just wanted to warn you all about this. Its also always very difficult to get a hold of anyone at Roland for tech support. Our printer was 5+ years old and they said it reached end of life and was no longer supported. Our $18,000 investment is now worthless. Do not buy from Roland.

So what exactly is your issue? It sounds like you can either ride out the cleaning cycles for this set of cartridges, or pitch them and get new ones if it is driving you nuts.

 

[Nexus6]

I've heard of Rolands doing more cleaning with 3rd party inks for sure but not permanently. Still a sketchy practice in my opinion. Have you tried resetting to factory defaults and recalibrating the printer?

We tried a lot of things including resetting to factory defaults and recalibration.

So what exactly is your issue? It sounds like you can either ride out the cleaning cycles for this set of cartridges, or pitch them and get new ones if it is driving you nuts.

We replaced the cartridges with new ones and it still does this. They said once it detects it, its a permanent setting.

 

[Z SIGNS]

Look at the bright side.
You paid 18 large for the machine and it lasted 5 years.
That's only 9.86 doll hairs a day.
For a machine that could potentially make thousands of doll hairs a day I'd say you got a pretty good deal.
Not happy with Roland and their practices? Divorce em and move on.
Whining about them gets you no where.

 

[Steve Hamm]

This is what works when my 540i does this.
Remove all the ink cartridges and then try to perform a hard reset on the printer. With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet. ... Now insert the ink cartridges and then try to print a test page and check if it works.

 

[garyroy]

This is what works when my 540i does this.
Remove all the ink cartridges and then try to perform a hard reset on the printer. With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet. ... Now insert the ink cartridges and then try to print a test page and check if it works.

If this works, you're a genius and that guy owes you and your wife a gift card for dinner.

 

[CanuckSigns]

This is what works when my 540i does this.
Remove all the ink cartridges and then try to perform a hard reset on the printer. With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer and also unplug the power cord from the wall outlet. ... Now insert the ink cartridges and then try to print a test page and check if it works.

Unplugging the power cord from both ends is a new one for me, make sure you shake it well enough for the electrons to fall out

 

[White Haus]

Our business have used nothing but Roland DGA products since the beginning. We have been loyal and used only Roland parts and OEM inks.

Recently our Roland wide format printer starting acting up by running a cleaning cycle during every printing process. (there were no updates made to software or changes made to the machine) After much trouble shooting we found out that the chip on the OEM ink cartridges were bad and so the printer thought we were using 3rd party inks. When it detects 3rd party inks, it runs a cleaning cycle every feet or so to punish you and waste your time and ink, and once it recognizes a 3rd party ink, its a permanent thing.

After going back and forth with a Roland tech, in the end they just told us pretty much "we can't support you any more and you're on your own." I just wanted to warn you all about this. Its also always very difficult to get a hold of anyone at Roland for tech support. Our printer was 5+ years old and they said it reached end of life and was no longer supported. Our $18,000 investment is now worthless. Do not buy from Roland.

What model specifically are you running?

We've been running Nazdar inks on our XR-640 for years are really happy with them. Although it does run more cleaning cycles (despite having it set to the least frequent interval) it's only every couple hours of non-stop printing. Have you checked what your auto-clean settings are on the machine? Seems odd that it would clean every few feet, unless it's set to that interval.

Regarding your situation, obviously you're out of warranty at this point, but does your dealer not like money? 5+ year old Rolands are hardly at end of life.

Find a new dealer to come have a look at your unit and see what's happening. If it seems to think it's getting 3rd party inks for whatever reason and it can't be reset/changed, then it might be worth considering switching to 3rd party inks and at least getting those savings that could outweigh the inconvenience of the frequent cleanings.

Definitely seems like an odd situation though. Hope you get it sorted out.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Honestly, non-OEM inks have improved greatly in the last 10 years. It used to be the reliable ones were far and few between and even the good ones had bad batches once in a while. These days I don't hear nearly as many horror stories as I used to. It's gotten to the point that the OEM guys have had to lower their prices to compete, although they tend to only give price breaks on the higher capacity cartridges and bulk systems.

 

[White Haus]

Honestly, non-OEM inks have improved greatly in the last 10 years. It used to be the reliable ones were far and few between and even the good ones had bad batches once in a while. These days I don't hear nearly as many horror stories as I used to. It's gotten to the point that the OEM guys have had to lower their prices to compete, although they tend to only give price breaks on the higher capacity cartridges and bulk systems.

I was always against 3rd party inks then eventually gave Nazdar a shot. We started using them in our XC-540 and after a couple of years of zero problems and thousands of savings we also switched our XR-640.

We don't do a ton of printing but the savings are definitely worth it.

I don't think I would trust or try any other brand - Nazdar has been making ink for a LONG time and we felt confident going with them.

 

[Zoogee World]

Although as previously mentioned, there are a little more frequent cleaning cycles when you use 3rd Party inks, I find, at least myself that it doesn't really slow me down, I think it takes about 2 minutes, but runs only 1 or 2 times a day when running all day long, so all in all, it's not a big time waster and does clean the printer running smoother. However, by the sounds of it, your Printer (what model is it?) is doing them a little more frequent, and as mentioned above if you haven't already done so, you might want to check the cycle frequency and lower it to it's lowest.