New membership - small time printer :-)

[Nancy@creamcitymarketing]

Hello - new to this group. We are a very, very small time printer - a marketing company that prints for it's own clients and we have a retail store/wholesale operation that we make about 75% of what we sell. We have three machines - Epson8000 that we print mostly canvas and art prints on, and Ricoh digital press that we print traditional business items, brochures, business cards, booklets - that kind of thing, but also all the paper goods we sell in our store - journals, notepads, art prints, coloring books, things like that. We also have a Mimaki UVJVC300 . The thing we sell the most of are die cut stickers - we sell in our store and wholesale as well.

Our previous Mimaki bit the dust in August of 2022 and we ended up taking a demo unit for the UVJVC300 because Mimaki didn't have any stock and with us only have one of each of the three types of printers, we were down and headed into the holiday season without the Mimaki.

Has anyone purchased a demo unit? What was your experience - good, bad or ugly? Did the person you purchased the demo unit from disclose the age and usage of the machine?

Thanks for any input!

 

[The Big Squeegee]

2

 

[JBurton]

Welcome!
We bought a demo l25500 10 or 15 years ago, it served us well. I believe they ran an audit of the printer and provided it prior to the purchase. Overall it was a good experience, though it's pretty hard to screw up an HP do to low usage compared to a traditional solvent.

 

[Nancy@creamcitymarketing]

Thanks for the info... we haven't been as lucky. We just recently found out that the demo actually had almost 11000 hours on the UV lamp and 33000 linear feet go through it. It's needed service at least 7-8 times during the 16 months we've had it - was down the entire first month we had it and is down yet again. Two weeks ago, it needed a new control panel and worked only 3 days and is down again. The person I bought it from has extended the warranty for 90 days but I'm very concerned about the next 43 months of the lease. I really didn't buy a "demo" but a used printed and paid list price for it. The whole thing is making me sick.

 

[JBurton]

11000 hours on the UV lamp and 33000 linear feet go through it.

That's a ton of footage, like 220 150' rolls. And 11000 is 458 days. I think your numbers got an extra 0, or this machine was used up and resold with maybe a new head? Did it come in the box and was it clean when delivered? Did you buy it from a distributor?

 

[Nancy@creamcitymarketing]

It is a ton of usage - there wasn't an extra zero. I did purchase it through a distributor and he's not taking responsibility for the usage at all - says "you knew you were buying a demo" the number of repairs we've needed supports the fact that it was used so much. This is our second Mimaki and I've done business with the distributor for 15 years. I didn't ask how much usage it had though - trusted that it was above board.

 

[JBurton]

"you knew you were buying a demo"

A demo would be in a show room. Unless this showroom was running covid floor graphics for 6 months, I don't see how they pushed that much material through the dang thing in a show room. Of course, after a year and a half, you're SOL on having the distributor help with anything.
I'm sure someone more knowledgeable about these mimakis will chime in pretty soon, they may have more insight as to your best route to either refurb the printer or cut your losses and sell it to another poor soul.

 

[Nancy@creamcitymarketing]

A demo would be in a show room. Unless this showroom was running covid floor graphics for 6 months, I don't see how they pushed that much material through the dang thing in a show room. Of course, after a year and a half, you're SOL on having the distributor help with anything.
I'm sure someone more knowledgeable about these mimakis will chime in pretty soon, they may have more insight as to your best route to either refurb the printer or cut your losses and sell it to another poor soul.

He said it was placed at a printer in WI for three months - sat on the floor - it was someone that already had three of them and was thinking of buying a fourth but then didn't get the job. I also found out through Mimaki that the initial setup was done on the printer in November of 2020 - two full years before I purchased it. It wasn't in a bag, a box or anything like that. I can't in good faith sell it to someone else. We use our printer maybe 10 hours a week - we're a very small volume place. We use it to print stickers which we sell in our store, to clients and wholesale. Thanks for suggesting the refurb idea - maybe I could convince Mimaki to have their techs refurbish it and identify any hidden problems with it and try to get the costs covered by Mimaki. It was a big deal for us to purchase the printer and I've got 43 months left on the lease. It's totally frustrating, stressing me out and discouraging me all at the same time. I've been a owned this business for 25 years and my retail store for 8 and this is by far the worst I've ever been treated in business.

 

[greysquirrel]

There is a difference between a demo unit and a try and buy. I think if you found out the usage early enough you have grounds for bait and switch. Sadly once a reseller has your money, you are just a number. I’d go public with the salesperson and company. Maybe a few lost sales will do them some good.

 

[Nancy@creamcitymarketing]

The owner of the reseller is a very intimidating person - he's already taunted me about crushing me if I were to pursue legal action. The machine is down and I need him to at least get it back running. Today I had to outsource about $1k of jobs that I should have printed myself. I totally get that I'm just a number but I haven't given up totally. I had contacted Mimaki customer service and have some communication going with them but not sure they are going to pressure him to take responsibility for selling me a used printer. Holding out hope they will. I've survived setbacks before but this one really frustrates me.

 

[JBurton]

he's already taunted me about crushing me if I were to pursue legal action.

Hopefully in an email? I'd goad him into as many threats as plausible if he's keen to type such stuff out in an email, then forward that to mimaki asking them how to deal with an authorized distributor that's behaving this way. This is more vindictive than helpful, but my 2 cents.

He said it was placed at a printer in WI for three months - sat on the floor - it was someone that already had three of them and was thinking of buying a fourth but then didn't get the job. I also found out through Mimaki that the initial setup was done on the printer in November of 2020 - two full years before I purchased it.

Yeah, somebody ran the sh*t out of it during covid, made plenty of money, then somehow returned it. Salesman couldn't push it on anyone, until he saw mimaki stock come up short, and unloaded it on the first person trying to buy a printer. I'm sorry it was you, that's a sh*tty way to do business. Have you looked around for alternative techs/distributors in your area? I'd also advise you to take you sales to someone else, and lean on signs365 or firesprint.com when you have to.

 

[Nancy@creamcitymarketing]

Hopefully in an email? I'd goad him into as many threats as plausible if he's keen to type such stuff out in an email, then forward that to mimaki asking them how to deal with an authorized distributor that's behaving this way. This is more vindictive than helpful, but my 2 cents.

Yeah, somebody ran the sh*t out of it during covid, made plenty of money, then somehow returned it. Salesman couldn't push it on anyone, until he saw mimaki stock come up short, and unloaded it on the first person trying to buy a printer. I'm sorry it was you, that's a sh*tty way to do business. Have you looked around for alternative techs/distributors in your area? I'd also advise you to take you sales to someone else, and lean on signs365 or firesprint.com when you have to.

I have found a new distributor and their ink prices are much more reasonable - he was charging me $295 for a bottle and my new distributor charges $162 - when I called him on the fact that his prices were almost double one of his competitors he just laughed. I think he's very well connected with Mimaki and unfortunately, I'm thinking he's going to say I'm one of "those" customers, but I haven't given up. thanks for your guidance.

 

[Scooter13]

I have found a new distributor and their ink prices are much more reasonable - he was charging me $295 for a bottle and my new distributor charges $162 - when I called him on the fact that his prices were almost double one of his competitors he just laughed. I think he's very well connected with Mimaki and unfortunately, I'm thinking he's going to say I'm one of "those" customers, but I haven't given up. thanks for your guidance.

Not sure if this is allowed, but I would like to know your previous distributor as to avoid them in the future.

 

[Nancy@creamcitymarketing]

I'm not sure if I can say their name or not - I'm in Wisconsin. Do you do business in Wisconsin?

 

[Goatshaver]

I have found a new distributor and their ink prices are much more reasonable - he was charging me $295 for a bottle and my new distributor charges $162 - when I called him on the fact that his prices were almost double one of his competitors he just laughed. I think he's very well connected with Mimaki and unfortunately, I'm thinking he's going to say I'm one of "those" customers, but I haven't given up. thanks for your guidance.

Wow, that's taking advantage of a customer and to talk to you that way after purchasing equipment is definitely a sign of a distributor that doesn't care about it's customers. Whenever I see ink it's always the same price across the board. Ink is usually pretty tightly controlled for pricing as far as I know. I'm not even sure if they can even charge like that. I'd be highly suspicious and not use that distributor ever again.

 

[Joe House]

I would say that calling it a "Demo" printer is misleading. I've been responsible for may demo printers in my career and unless we were printing samples to hand out at a trade show, they would not even run a full roll. We typically kept them for 6 months to a year (the time frame is usually influenced by the vendor) and then offered them at a discount compared to a new printer.
I would encourage you to continue talking to Mimaki and keep pressure up on the dealer. If you used a leasing company recommended by the dealer, reach out to them as well.

 

[Scooter13]

I'm not sure if I can say their name or not - I'm in Wisconsin. Do you do business in Wisconsin?

Nope

 

[JBurton]

I'm not sure if I can say their name or not - I'm in Wisconsin. Do you do business in Wisconsin?

From a moral standpoint, if you feel wronged, as long as you only speak the truth, you can say whatever you like.
From a legal standpoint, if you're considering action, they may be inclined to countersue you for libel or some bs. If it's all true, this shouldn't be an issue.
If another account appeared tomorrow, trash talking some distributor, nobody would connect the dots...

At any rate, I too would like to know, but understand if you are not going to go bad mouthing a distributor that you're at odds with, you never know when you may need to lean on them when something is hard to come by...

 

[wendy kong]

Hello - new to this group. We are a very, very small time printer - a marketing company that prints for it's own clients and we have a retail store/wholesale operation that we make about 75% of what we sell. We have three machines - Epson8000 that we print mostly canvas and art prints on, and Ricoh digital press that we print traditional business items, brochures, business cards, booklets - that kind of thing, but also all the paper goods we sell in our store - journals, notepads, art prints, coloring books, things like that. We also have a Mimaki UVJVC300 . The thing we sell the most of are die cut stickers - we sell in our store and wholesale as well.

Our previous Mimaki bit the dust in August of 2022 and we ended up taking a demo unit for the UVJVC300 because Mimaki didn't have any stock and with us only have one of each of the three types of printers, we were down and headed into the holiday season without the Mimaki.

Has anyone purchased a demo unit? What was your experience - good, bad or ugly? Did the person you purchased the demo unit from disclose the age and usage of the machine?

Thanks for any input!

 

[Stacey K]

I'm not sure if I can say their name or not - I'm in Wisconsin. Do you do business in Wisconsin?

I do business in Wisconsin, I'm curious who it is lol