Rant Mimaki Parts Delays

[Goatshaver]

I'm sure I'm not the only one frustrated with this. Mimaki has been so slow on parts lately it's absurd. I ordered cap tops 1.5 months ago and they are still on backorder. I had gotten a package 2 weeks ago thinking it was the caps but it was some cables that were ordered for a service call I had placed 2 months ago. How the hell is a business supposed to operate if you cannot get the parts for the machine....thankfully my caps are in good shape but I'm sure there are folks out there waiting for parts to fix a down machine with no ETA for the resolution. Also I guess they outsourced their shipping from their warehouse and it's been very slow from what I've heard.

This is really frustrating. *grumble*

 

[Solventinkjet]

They did make some major changes to their shipping policies and procedures in the beginning of this year. It got pretty rough there for us dealers as well. When I started a long time ago, every order I placed shipped same day as long as it was before the shipping cutoff. Now there isn't even an official cutoff time so I have to tell customers who order parts expedited that, even though you want it overnight, I can't guarantee it ships today. What cap tops are you looking for? I can look into if there's an ETA or not. Have you considered aftermarket?

 

[John Miller]

I’m replacing my 150-160. Print head clogged, power supply and power control board bad. The rest is useable parts. Got to make room for the new printer.

 

[Black Star]

I'm sure I'm not the only one frustrated with this. Mimaki has been so slow on parts lately it's absurd. I ordered cap tops 1.5 months ago and they are still on backorder. I had gotten a package 2 weeks ago thinking it was the caps but it was some cables that were ordered for a service call I had placed 2 months ago. How the hell is a business supposed to operate if you cannot get the parts for the machine....thankfully my caps are in good shape but I'm sure there are folks out there waiting for parts to fix a down machine with no ETA for the resolution. Also I guess they outsourced their shipping from their warehouse and it's been very slow from what I've heard.

This is really frustrating. *grumble*

More Mimaki excuses...

Since COVID, it seems like customer service has gone to sh*t. It's not only Mimaki but it's super frustrating when you need help and the manufacturers just don't care.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Mimaki's insistence on re-boxing and labeling common parts with their part numbers and crazy markup is a big part of the issue. Had lots of parts get quoted as being 2 months out, good time to have salvage printers around I guess.

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

I'm sure I'm not the only one frustrated with this. Mimaki has been so slow on parts lately it's absurd. I ordered cap tops 1.5 months ago and they are still on backorder. I had gotten a package 2 weeks ago thinking it was the caps but it was some cables that were ordered for a service call I had placed 2 months ago. How the hell is a business supposed to operate if you cannot get the parts for the machine....thankfully my caps are in good shape but I'm sure there are folks out there waiting for parts to fix a down machine with no ETA for the resolution. Also I guess they outsourced their shipping from their warehouse and it's been very slow from what I've heard.

This is really frustrating. *grumble*

They're slow on everything but except getting you to buy one of their printers. We sold a record number of OKI Colorpainter M64 printers and after manufacturing ended we kept them running.
Mimaki cut me off because I wouldn't sell any of their unreliable printers so I've been replacing the Oki's with Epson's in crazy numbers!

 

[Goatshaver]

They did make some major changes to their shipping policies and procedures in the beginning of this year. It got pretty rough there for us dealers as well. When I started a long time ago, every order I placed shipped same day as long as it was before the shipping cutoff. Now there isn't even an official cutoff time so I have to tell customers who order parts expedited that, even though you want it overnight, I can't guarantee it ships today. What cap tops are you looking for? I can look into if there's an ETA or not. Have you considered aftermarket?

It's a total mess. Captops for the UCJV330 Thankfully I don't NEED them, but I wanted a set on hand just in case. Are there aftermarket for this model yet? Not sure if they changed the designs from the 300.

 

[Solventinkjet]

It's a total mess. Captops for the UCJV330 Thankfully I don't NEED them, but I wanted a set on hand just in case. Are there aftermarket for this model yet? Not sure if they changed the designs from the 300.

I looked into it and confirmed they are on backorder with ETA pending which is not great because most common items will at least give an ETA even if it's a long one. In my experience, they could come in at any time as in tomorrow or weeks from now unfortunately. The 330 series does use a different cap top as the 300 and the tech manual shows a specific part number for just the UCJV330. The JV330/CJV330 part number is different even though it's the same head. If I had a machine here to test, I'd try the JV330 cap just to see if it works and what the differences are but that might be too risky/pricey to take a gamble on in your case.

 

[Goatshaver]

I looked into it and confirmed they are on backorder with ETA pending which is not great because most common items will at least give an ETA even if it's a long one. In my experience, they could come in at any time as in tomorrow or weeks from now unfortunately. The 330 series does use a different cap top as the 300 and the tech manual shows a specific part number for just the UCJV330. The JV330/CJV330 part number is different even though it's the same head. If I had a machine here to test, I'd try the JV330 cap just to see if it works and what the differences are but that might be too risky/pricey to take a gamble on in your case.

Appreciate you checking into that. Hopefully they will be available soon.
I mean I'm wondering if someone has a service plan and, say they need caps, but are stuck in this waiting for the BO. This could definitely lead to more problems and possibly head damage and at $7300 per head, that can add up real fast from a $50 part to a lot more. I'm wondering if there would be any legal recourse if this would happen.