Buyer Beware: Airmark $99 PER PHONE CALL for out of warranty support.

[CarNate69]

Airmark has seemingly "changed" their policy, and it's now $99 per phone call to work with them on any machine problem when the machine you purchase from them is out of warranty.

Summa Technical Support from AirMark

Get toll-free technical support for Summa cutters purchased through AirMark. Certified technicians, genuine parts, and reliable support for Summa flatbed, vinyl, and printer/cutter systems.

www.airmark.com

Our Roland, Mimaki, etc. dealers support us over the phone at no cost when we need them because we buy from them, now to see the industry go to this 1-900 style repair is really sad to us.

Just a heads up.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

We have offered these extended support plans for customers out of warranty for quite some time now, mainly to support customers who purchased from other dealers who couldn't support them adequately on their Summa products. Often times we will still provide support to our customers out of warranty at no cost, like we did in your case this week offering up pointers on the mainboard on your S2, but if there is additional in depth troubleshooting that needs to be done on a machine that is several years out of warranty we do need to charge for that. A $99 per incident charge to provide expert support on out of warranty Summa products we feel is very reasonable especially compared to extended downtime or receiving poor support from another source that doesn't help resolve the issue.

Please feel free to contact me anytime like I mentioned yesterday and I am always happy to help. I have helped provide free Summa support to tons of users on this site for many years and will continue to do so going forward so if anyone needs help please feel free to reach out anytime.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

 

[FrankW]

Is standard in our company in europe too (around $30 per 15 Minutes, free for up to 5 minutes). With the earnings of one machine, you cant deliver free service for years.

There are no robots spending time to solve problems, there are people which wants to be paid.

 

[FrankW]

I had an own one-man-company for years, but one cause of I myself have crashed my business was too much kindness in this things.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Is standard in our company in europe too (around $30 per 15 Minutes, free for up to 5 minutes). With the earnings of one machine, you cant deliver free service for years.

There are no robots spending time to solve problems, there are people which wants to be paid.

It's a cost of doing business and product support is typically expected, service calls are a different story. These aren't $5 trinkets. I don't know about the print world but with most machinery the factory doesn't typically charge for this sort of thing. I had to call one the other day on something that was built in 1998, the engineer spent about 30 mins on the phone with me going over wiring and also emailed the schematics. I bought it used at an auction too.

 

[FrankW]

It's a cost of doing business and product support is typically expected …

It needs to be paid … it needs to be calculated in the machine price (which is difficult sometimes), or in case that support is needed. „Money don’t grow on threes“ is a german saying. I‘m shure you dont want to work for free, as me too.

The guy who helps you, was that someone who works for the manufacturer of the device you bought? Does he perhaps expect future business with you?

Paying for service is widely accepted in our market here in germany, by business customers.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

This isn't anything new.. most industries charge for support calls on out of warranty items. If a customer complained a sign faded and it was outside your warranty, do you fix it?

 

[CanuckSigns]

Our Vision Engraver is at least 5 years out of warrantee, i had to call in a few months ago to diagnose an issue, during the whole 3 years it was in warrantee I never had to call them, but now they wanted $100 to put tech support on the phone, I understand that it's out of warrantee, but I thought the fact that it's my first time calling them they may waive it. To their credit the support was great and got me back up and running in about 2 hours.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Our Vision Engraver is at least 5 years out of warrantee, i had to call in a few months ago to diagnose an issue, during the whole 3 years it was in warrantee I never had to call them, but now they wanted $100 to put tech support on the phone, I understand that it's out of warrantee, but I thought the fact that it's my first time calling them they may waive it. To their credit the support was great and got me back up and running in about 2 hours.

Sounds like it was well worth the $100.

 

[Humble PM]

If a customer complained a sign faded and it was outside your warranty, do you fix it?

If you've told them when you sold it to them (or someone else sold it to them) that it is a short term banner, then this isn't a support call, it's a sales opportunity.

Catch me on a quiet 5-10 minutes, I'll give support; you want half an hour (or three) of my time to make something work, then we're on the clock.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Sounds like it was well worth the $100.

it was, just kind of irked me a bit.

 

[Humble PM]

Sounds less expensive than the reputable least expensive dentist.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

This isn't anything new.. most industries charge for support calls on out of warranty items. If a customer complained a sign faded and it was outside your warranty, do you fix it?

No but when they ask you why it faded, do you tell them to give you 20 bucks and you'll tell them? This isn't a repair charge.
How much time and money goes into the sales process? You can ask them every question under the sun before you buy one. Have demos, run samples just waste all of the time you want before you spend any money but after you spend the money and buy the machine you have to pay to ask a question.

 

[CarNate69]

We bought Summa machines with the understanding they had "free lifetime technical support" when purchased, this has clearly not been upheld. It's not always about dollars, its about sticking to your word and doing what's right, and in this case, it's become about dollars and we find that very sad.

 

[signage]

never believe what a salesman tells you if it isn't in writing.