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Mutoh/PrismJet

WVB

New Member
I have been looking for a new printer and plotter with OPOS due to my current Panther not having this option. I have been looking into the Mutoh Falcon and Falcon Jr. As you know I visited Advantage and was very impressed with the Mutoh Jr and the Mimaki print quality. Here is where the fun begins......

In my search for the best price I called Signwarehouse to see what they are selling in terms of printers. Well I asked about the Mutoh's. They said they sold them! So I asked for a quote with the new Panther's with the OPOS. So I got one for the Mutoh Jr 38 and a Panther 40" for $12,050 and a Falcon 48 with 6 colors w/ a Panther 52" for $16,450. I said wow that is around $2500 less then everyone sells them for. These include inks by the way. So next the rep mentioned PrismJet's. Told me they were quite a bit less then the Mutoh name. So I then said well give me a price with the PrismJet and the Panthers. So he gave me the exact pricing as listed above.. I said I thought you said they were quite a bit cheaper? These are the same pricing you gave me with the Mutoh's? So another rep came in on the call and said well I can do them for 11,495 and 15,495. I said wow that is cheaper then the last rep gave me? Now do these include inks? Well no they do not she said. Went on about how the PrismJet is the Mutoh and it is the same exact machine as the Mutoh etc.

Well well well, all along they were giving me the pricing of the PrismJets. Here is what I found out about them. Signwarehouse buys OEM Mutoh's and Mutoh's inks from Mutoh and restamps them with their own name brand PrismJet. The fact that they were deceitful on calling their PrismJet a Mutoh or rather allowing me to believe that they were quoting me for a Mutoh was wrong!!! They should have stated that indeed it was a PrismJet but that it was manufactured by Mutoh would have been better. So I said no way can there be that much price difference between a PrismJet and a Mutoh and not be any difference.. (SSK does the same thing with their Graphtecs and their DesignTech line. Indeed the DesignTech is manufactured by Graphtec for them, but they have changed things such as speed, downforce and dropped down from 8 settings to 4 settings.)

So I called Mutoh. He indeed informed me that the PrismJet is a Mutoh restamped with their name brand. That Signwarehouse needs to be way more careful at their wording... In any event they are one in the same machine. The big difference is the service contract. I said well SW uses Calgraph for service. He said with that being said so does Mutoh. However they are two completely different service agreements. SW has a whole different agreement then Mutoh does with Calgraph. Also SW does not include inks with their setups, they are at additional cost, and if you live in Texas they will send out a install tech for 48 hours one on one support for $2500 extra.

In any event I thought I would mention this for any who cares....:thumb:
 

Scott Reynolds

New Member
I heard one fellow say he ordered a 48" PrismJet and got a Mutoh in the mail. Not one stinking PrismJet sticker anywhere. Box, papers and printer all said Mutoh.
 

Steve C.

New Member
Yep. My experience exactly. But I can't believe they would send out printers with no ink! I got ink with mine. The only place the word PrismJet is found is on the invoice. The Jaguar is a good cutter but I don't recomend it as part of a print and cut system if you use flexi as your rip program.
 

Barry

New Member
Steve C. said:
Yep. My experience exactly. But I can't believe they would send out printers with no ink! I got ink with mine. The only place the word PrismJet is found is on the invoice. The Jaguar is a good cutter but I don't recomend it as part of a print and cut system if you use flexi as your rip program.
Im pretty sure that not coming with ink is standard. I know the Roland machines do not come with Ink... Ink is however one of the things you can bargan for when purchasing a printer. When I got my Versacamm I got the dealer to throw in 2 sets of ink and 4 rolls of media. Not many dealers are giving these kind of deals any longer though. Your lucky if you can get a set of ink... :)
 

WVB

New Member
When I contacted Mutoh direct - the guy said all Mutoh's come with ink. SW is selling their ink extra as opposed to included with Printer. I would not be surprised with SW, heck they did not even know the new Panthers come with OPOS until the manufacture shipped them. Steve C. do you have a new Panther with OPOS or you referring to the older version with out? I love my Panther and since it comes with OPOS I would not hesitate to purchase another. And since the PrismJet is a Mutoh only stamped differently then I would purchase one do to finacial reasons. A lot of the time SW will sweeten the deal by throwing in free supplies such as vinyl, etc, or giving you half off of shipping cost for the plotter or printer.
 

Steve C.

New Member
TVG said:
Steve C. do you have a new Panther with OPOS or you referring to the older version with out? QUOTE]

I got the Mutoh Faclon 48 (PrismJet) with the Jaguar 30" to cut my contuors. After about 6 months of trying to resolve isues with flexi rip&print and the Jaguar, I finally gave it back to SW in exchange for a Graphtec. I did like the Jaguar very much except for the one problem, and I know there where others who had the same problem that did go unresolved. I must say that SW was very good about giving me a full refund for the Jaguar even after 6 months.

The Panther I had did not have Auto Registration Mark Sensors, but it did have the Manual bomb drop method of registration.
 

WVB

New Member
Perhaps I will stick with the PrismJet to save some from signwarehouse but look into the Graphtec instead. The new FCFC7000 series is out and it has a new improved OPOS system with a laser now. Have to see if SW sells the 7000 series yet...
 

Color Dude

New Member
Whats the Big Deal

I dont understand the big deal with SW selling the Falcon Outdoor printer with the Prismjet name on it. Some of you guys make it sound like its a crime. And just for your information, Mutoh does NOT package the inks with the printers anymore. Yes, about 2 months ago, they did, but not any longer. The reason for this is to keep up with Roland in sales. If they dont include inks, Mutoh or any reseller of Mutoh can offer the printers at a lower price and possibly win the sale from Roland. This does not always work, but sometimes it does. When purchasing a Mutoh, you need to make sure that you get cleaning cartridges with it, the Mutoh printers no longer come with those either, although the Roland printers do, you must remind the reseller to include those in your quotes.

As far as the cutters go, Yes the Graphtec is a better cutter, but it has its own set of issues aswell. The Panther in IMO is a much more reliable cutter and alot more user friendly and you will receive much better tech support compared to the Graphtec. Another little tidbit of information for you, the new Panthers/Jaguar III's have an optical eye on them aswell, and Scanvec is working very closely with SW and GCC preparing a driver for this option. If you would still rather set your contours up manualy that option is still there too.

It just sounds like to me, that Will may have received some mis-information on his initial call. SW has always done right in my book. They work very hard to make sure the customer is taken care of.

Color Dude:thankyou:
 
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