Disastrous experience with mutoh assistance

[Peppeum]

Hello everyone, I want to tell you about my disastrous experience with my Mutoh plotter.

I have a valuejet1324 in Italy and have had some printing defects for some time. At first I thought it was banding and so I contacted Mutoh and they gave me the name of a dealer in my city who also do assistance.

the technician came and initially told me that the problem was in the cleaning station. It was necessary to change the pump, capping, viper... everything in practice. Price €700.00. I paid the whole thing and we changed nothing but the print quality was the same.

Later he told me that it was also necessary to change the dampers because there were drops of contact under the cartridge and they had to be replaced. If the dampers were changed, the problem would have been solved but the result was not guaranteed. Price €600.00. Ok let's change that too

During the damper change, the motherboard died... as soon as the plotter was turned on, it no longer printed anything. Then it is disassembled and taken for repairs. Cost between repair and other technical intervention € 250.00. I said: okay, as long as we sort it out. I only have a plotter and I need it to work.

As soon as the motherboard is mounted, the plotter starts printing again but it prints worse than before. To date it is completely unusable because I have two channels (black and magenta) where the ink doesn't even pass through the tubes. That is, from what I understand the head can not draw the ink. The result is that today the plotter prints worse than before and the drops under the head have remained. To solve it they tell me that the head needs to be changed. Cost € 4,000 plus changing damper and capping again (therefore more than € 4,000) and the result is obviously not guaranteed.

Now I'm pretty angry because I spent €1,500 for nothing and I don't want to spend all this money on my mind. I buy a new plotter and do it faster. But I say is it possible not to go back to the diagnosis of the head before doing all these expensive interventions? To date I have thrown €1,500 out the window to print worse than before.

PS. the plotter is three years old and has always been meticulously maintained with only original inks.

The company doesn't want to hear stories: either I pay or they do nothing. Today I'm stopped and I can't print. I also emailed mutoh a few days ago explaining what happened but they didn't even reply.

Do you think this is normal? Let's change, let's change... meanwhile you spend money for nothing and the result is not guaranteed.

I am considering getting another brand of plotter as I am very dissatisfied with the service. When they have to sell they are all concerned about your needs, when problems happen it is money or nothing.

Have you ever had similar experiences? For me it was the first plotter but never again with Mutoh.

Sorry for the outburst and thanks to whoever replies

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I'm not 100% certain what Mutoh's warranty is (been a minute since I ran one), but I believe the parts you mentioned as being replaced (other than the mother board) are consumables (i.e., they require periodic replacement, and that's part of the cost of ownership).
That motherboard, though? It was damaged by the tech doing the "repair", so that person/company should bear 100% of the responsibility/cost of getting you back up and running to- at the very least- the quality you had prior to them doing anything to the machine. Good luck with fighting them on that, because (in my experience) independent repair techs are notoriously "not my fault" types.
As far as the overall experience, if the machine isn't under warranty (usually a warranty you pay for yearly or monthly, with a three-year-old printer such as yours), the manufacturers will not normal give a single damn whether you're running or not. Notice I said normally, there are some manufacturers who are very good about support- even after the warranty runs out (CLN Florida, and MultiCam Southeast come immediately to mind for me, since I actually deal with them at times).
For example, one of my previous employers owned an HP FB750. When it worked, it was a fantastic printer (they just didn't use it efficiently, but that's a different story for a different day), but- when it had troubles? Good grief. Since the printer was out of the original warranty by the time I began working there, any time anything went wrong, it was up to the print manager and myself to figure out what was wrong. If it was beyond what we could do (changing heads, pumps, capping station, or encoders), it required we call an independent service tech- and their answer was, almost invariably, a litany of "you need a new printhead/pump/capping station/encoder/controller board/printhead controller/motherboard". It didn't seem to actually matter what was wrong, their answer was always to replace components and (maybe) things would work correctly again.
Your best bet, in my opinion, is to continue to hammer at Mutoh and have them send a tech (not an independent). (Not that I'm saying their aren't good/efficient/knowledgeable independent tech, they're just hard to find).
If you end up having to purchase a completely new printer, I suggest- once the initial warranty runs out- that you pay for the extended warranty as long as it's offered. And, every single time a tech comes to do anything, watch them, take notes, and ask plenty of questions. Best of luck to you.

 

[Peppeum]

I'm not 100% certain what Mutoh's warranty is (been a minute since I ran one), but I believe the parts you mentioned as being replaced (other than the mother board) are consumables (i.e., they require periodic replacement, and that's part of the cost of ownership).
That motherboard, though? It was damaged by the tech doing the "repair", so that person/company should bear 100% of the responsibility/cost of getting you back up and running to- at the very least- the quality you had prior to them doing anything to the machine. Good luck with fighting them on that, because (in my experience) independent repair techs are notoriously "not my fault" types.
As far as the overall experience, if the machine isn't under warranty (usually a warranty you pay for yearly or monthly, with a three-year-old printer such as yours), the manufacturers will not normal give a single damn whether you're running or not. Notice I said normally, there are some manufacturers who are very good about support- even after the warranty runs out (CLN Florida, and MultiCam Southeast come immediately to mind for me, since I actually deal with them at times).
For example, one of my previous employers owned an HP FB750. When it worked, it was a fantastic printer (they just didn't use it efficiently, but that's a different story for a different day), but- when it had troubles? Good grief. Since the printer was out of the original warranty by the time I began working there, any time anything went wrong, it was up to the print manager and myself to figure out what was wrong. If it was beyond what we could do (changing heads, pumps, capping station, or encoders), it required we call an independent service tech- and their answer was, almost invariably, a litany of "you need a new printhead/pump/capping station/encoder/controller board/printhead controller/motherboard". It didn't seem to actually matter what was wrong, their answer was always to replace components and (maybe) things would work correctly again.
Your best bet, in my opinion, is to continue to hammer at Mutoh and have them send a tech (not an independent). (Not that I'm saying their aren't good/efficient/knowledgeable independent tech, they're just hard to find).
If you end up having to purchase a completely new printer, I suggest- once the initial warranty runs out- that you pay for the extended warranty as long as it's offered. And, every single time a tech comes to do anything, watch them, take notes, and ask plenty of questions. Best of luck to you.

Look on the consumables, I totally agree and I haven't blinked in changing them. Where I get upset is if it's the head (and I know it's expensive) why not diagnose it first instead of changing everything?
Now they tell me that besides the cartridge, I will have to change the damper and capping again (despite having been replaced a week ago). So the figure is around €5,000 and I'm not willing to spend it.
In terms of quality, it's much worse than before, today I can't even print and the test prints speak clearly of how the machine was and how it is now... the question remains however: at this point it's the head and if you don't pay, it stays that way .

I want the machine back at least as it printed before but now the damage is done and I'll take it in that place. Look the picture (black and magenta) and say me if this is normal... Before there weren't these shortcomings

 

[GAC05]

There are some printer techs here on the list, maybe one will join in and have some answers.
I wouldn't touch it until you are sure they are not going to do anything. If you start pulling it apart they won't have any obligation to fix their errors.
If the dealer is not willing to help and Mutoh is not going to step up you might want to see what you can do.
I'd pull the tube off the black channel and see if you can pull ink through it with a syringe. From the photo the black looks like it has dried up and blocked the line.
If you can pull the black ink through and still not get the black to print, you can switch the black line to one of the other channels that you know are good, and then run a few cleaning cycles and then some nozzle tests.
If the problem follows the ink line (still no black) then the issue is up the tube to the ink cart. If the original black channel is not printing the switched color - try switching the damper over. If nothing changes the head could be bad.
Are you using the MS31 ink that comes in the black cartridges? I have a 1624 and started having trouble with the black channel after the switch.
Them telling you that the parts they just replaced have to be replaced again at your expense, makes it sound like they do not know what they are doing.
With some work, you might be able to get it back up and printing, at least until you can arrange to get a new printer.
I just repaired my less-than-1-year-old maintenance station and when I pulled the pump apart the tubes were completely clogged. I took the pump out of an old station I had replaced and swapped it into the failing station - it is working fine now. A new pump will be here in a few days.
Good luck with this.

 

[Peppeum]

There are some printer techs here on the list, maybe one will join in and have some answers.
I wouldn't touch it until you are sure they are not going to do anything. If you start pulling it apart they won't have any obligation to fix their errors.
If the dealer is not willing to help and Mutoh is not going to step up you might want to see what you can do.
I'd pull the tube off the black channel and see if you can pull ink through it with a syringe. From the photo the black looks like it has dried up and blocked the line.
If you can pull the black ink through and still not get the black to print, you can switch the black line to one of the other channels that you know are good, and then run a few cleaning cycles and then some nozzle tests.
If the problem follows the ink line (still no black) then the issue is up the tube to the ink cart. If the original black channel is not printing the switched color - try switching the damper over. If nothing changes the head could be bad.
Are you using the MS31 ink that comes in the black cartridges? I have a 1624 and started having trouble with the black channel after the switch.
Them telling you that the parts they just replaced have to be replaced again at your expense, makes it sound like they do not know what they are doing.
With some work, you might be able to get it back up and printing, at least until you can arrange to get a new printer.
I just repaired my less-than-1-year-old maintenance station and when I pulled the pump apart the tubes were completely clogged. I took the pump out of an old station I had replaced and swapped it into the failing station - it is working fine now. A new pump will be here in a few days.
Good luck with this.

Thank you for you replay... I appreciate.

They don't want do more. The pump had been changed two weeks ago, along with the viper and capping. There is nothing left to change but the head...

The problem is in magenta too (in the picture don't see very well). Of course i always use original ink and good material. The plotter is kept maniacally becuase every week i clean.

For this moment i don't do nothing... i'll buy new plotter because i never try this type of reparation and when i have another one i try to repair alone, i can't do more.

Thank you

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I think you might have misunderstood what I posted: I totally fault the tech who came out and just kept saying it needed new parts (and fried your motherboard). That person (or their company) is who should pay for the repair to the machine to get it back to where it was, at the very least. I was merely adding that my experiences with 3rd party techs is (by and large) equally as bad as yours. It's unusual for them to diagnose anything, and their solution is almost always "replace (whatever expensive part they're looking at)" instead of actually determining what the malfunction is. Beyond that, I was offering you my opinion (based on experience) that the "extended" warranties may be a pain in the butt, yet they would (hopefully) keep anything like this from happening.
I hope you are able to get this resolved.

 

[Peppeum]

I think you might have misunderstood what I posted: I totally fault the tech who came out and just kept saying it needed new parts (and fried your motherboard). That person (or their company) is who should pay for the repair to the machine to get it back to where it was, at the very least. I was merely adding that my experiences with 3rd party techs is (by and large) equally as bad as yours. It's unusual for them to diagnose anything, and their solution is almost always "replace (whatever expensive part they're looking at)" instead of actually determining what the malfunction is. Beyond that, I was offering you my opinion (based on experience) that the "extended" warranties may be a pain in the butt, yet they would (hopefully) keep anything like this from happening.
I hope you are able to get this resolved.

No no i appreciate your replay, very thank you... it's not my language and I don't understand very well

Here don't do warranty extension. When sell warranty during 1 year and when finish it's your problem.

I know that technicians change all until function but I think isn't the solution. Easy work like this: change all and pay.

Thank you very much