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Problems with Roland and Florida Graphics with new xr 640!

Ryan T

New Member
Everyone,
I recently purchased a new Roland xr 640 From Florida Graphics ( worst mistake of my life). I immediately experienced problems with this machine from day one. Florida Graphics sent out 3 of their techs over a 2 month period and they could not figure out any of the 5 problems I was having. I was constatly talked down to and belittled by their manger John Eukovich. After countless emails and phone calls Florida Graphics quit responding to me at the end of December. I could not belive after spending $25,000.00 on a printer and sending Florida Graphics over 100 pictures and videos to document my problems that they would just blow me off knowing that my printer was not working! So I went directly to Roland and explained what was going on, I was dealing with Lester Thibodaux at this time. I explained to Lester the major problems I was having.


1) Color shift of up to 10-15 shades different on the same file.
2) Ink blobs would fall on the print or on the platen at will for nor reason
3) The cutter will not find the registration marks and when it does find them it will cut 1/8" off 95% of the time.
4) The printer will start banding in the middle of the print, there is no rhyme or reason. Sometimes it has dark lines and sometimes it has white lines.
5) The take up real will quit working in the middle of a print job and the vinyl will just wad up in the floor!


Just to give y'all a little back ground on my business 95 %of my work is vehicle and boat wraps. We use 180cv3 with the 8518 lam, and we print on the Roland pcv4 cast profile. That being said the banding is vot coming from a media/ profile conflict.


Lester informed me that he had spoke to John at Florida Graphics and all of my problems were user error and the I just needed to learn how to work the priner. I then sent Lester all of the pictures and videos of the problems I was having. Lester reviewed all of the files and agreed there was a bigger issue. Lester asked if they could send Tub lite out to look at the printer and verify the problems, I told him if there was going to be a he said she said issue between the 2 dealers I would rather have Roland come out to look at it, he said Tublite was a Roland certified dealer and there would not be a problem with them documenting the problems. I agreed to have Tubelite come out. Within a few days Jim Tubelite came out and inspected the printer. This is a copy of his email


"Hey Lester,


Spent around 3 hours with Ryan yesterday and there are issues with that machine, can they be fixed Is the question. Cutting issue, ink dropping from head on prints and nozzles dropping out while printing and take up reel are true problems. The color shift from the same file is real but would need to figure out what part of the software is causing it.






So after Roland sending out their certified dealer to inspect the machine you would think this would be a open and shut case!You would expect Roland to document the problems have you sign off on them and then send you new printer, right?


I get a docusign form from Roland saying that they are " replacing the printer per Jack". I informed them that they need to list all of the problems that were listed in their dealers report. They sent a 2nd form that says they are going to replace the printer for cutting issues and customer satisfaction. They will not list all of the problems! I have had Florida Graphics play games with their forms also,( I have every intention of seeking damages against florida graphics for the loss of business and materials that has been ruined. I have wasted of 500' of cv3 with printer malfunctions). I tried to call Jack Pozorski multiple time with no return call! I explained to him through email that the need to document the issues with the printer and he refuses to. After being ignored for 3 more day I finally sent this email




Jack,


I really don't appreciate being ignored! I have already been through this with your distributor Florida Graphics and now I am having to deal with your poor customer service. I paid over $25,000 for one of YOUR printers and would appreciate some more respect as a customer. Please answer the following:


1.) Do you feel that my printer operates 100% the way that it was intended, other than the cutting issue?


2.) If you give me a new printer what upgrades/changes have you made to it to ensure that I will not encounter the same problems as the printer I currently own?


3.) If you have made changes to the new printer, can you guarantee that I will not experience the same issues that I am currently dealing with, with my current printer?


We purchased this printer to improve our business and efficiency and it has done nothing but destroy our business and cost us valuable time and money.


I expect a timely response. Thank you.


Ryan Townsend.


This was his response


Ryan,
See my comments below.

1.) Do you feel that my printer operates 100% the way that it was intended, other than the cutting issue? In order to verify the condition of your printer, we would need to have it inspected and verified. Again, we have offered to replace your printer with a new printer as stated below for customer satisfaction reasons. The only way that process can continue is for you to sign the form provided.

2.) If you give me a new printer what upgrades/changes have you made to it to ensure that I will not encounter the same problems as the printer I currently own? Again, we are not clear what/if there are any “problems” with your current printer as stated above. We are replacing the unit for customer satisfaction reason bases on the claims that you are experiencing cutting issues.
3.) If you have made changes to the new printer, can you guarantee that I will not experience the same issues that I am currently dealing with, with my current printer? Please see our teams and conditions for any guarantee on our equipment.
https://www.rolanddga.com/support/warranties/inkjet-warranties

Best Regards,
Jack Pozorski




I came in this Monday to black ink literally poring out of the printer on to the platen and on to the ground and all jack said is that I need to sign the form with the false info, If I want the printer replaced.


Roland already had the printer inspected by there dealer. This has put me in a bad position, Roland knows I need the new printer in order to run my business so the are black mailing me to sign a form with inaccurate information in order to get it.


This was my last email to them, again I have had no response!


Jack and Lester,


1) Lester you told me that you were going to send Jim out to inspect the printer and verify the problems. I told you that I would rather have someone from Roland out because I have wasted enough of my time and if there was going to be a problem or dispute with having a dealer come out I would rather someone from Roland come. You assured me that you were sending a Roland certified dealer and that they could verify and document the issues with the printer. That being said I agreed to this and now Jack is saying he has to verify the problems. What was the point of sending Jim out to verify the problems? I will not be forced or strong armed into signing a form that does not have the correct info on it. You know the printer has issues and you need to list all of the issues!


2) Jack, so what you are telling me is you don't trust your certified dealer to tell you that a printer has problems? You say you are not clear on what the problems are. If you look at what Jim sent you it explains the problems very clearly!





>
> 1) cutter will not cut properly
> 2)Ink drops are falling out of the print head on the platen and on the prints
> 3)Nozzles are dropping out causing banding issues.
> 4) Software is causing color shift on the same file.
>
>
> These are the problems that Jim with Tubelight, (your certified dealer) sent you. He verified that these were problems with the machine. Correct?
>
> So lets go over the problems,
> 1) We know it doesn't cut correctly and that is the only thing you want to document.
>
> 2) Ink drops fall from the print head and that has been verified from your dealer. Is this supposed to happen? Should the print head just drop blobs of ink whereever it wants whenever it wants? If no, then this is a problem! I know this because you certified dealer said so! From the research I have done apparently you have dampers in the print heads that soak up ink (swell up )and cause this problem. I would say that this is a verified problem that Roland has encountered before since it is all over the sign forums!
>
> 3) The prints have random banding issues that will happen in the middle of a print job. This was verified by your certified dealer. Is the printer supposed to print with dark lines and banding issues? Of course not, so I would say that this is verified problem number 3!
>
> 4) The same file will print 2 different colors at will, with up to 10 shades different in color. Is this normal? This was verified by your certified dealer.
>
>
> Jack, you are saying that you are replacing the printer because I claim it has issues. I'm not claiming to have problems with the machine, your dealer has inspected and has verified the problems with the machine! With all of that said those issues need to be documented! If you are telling me that this is the way your printers are intended to operate then this is unacceptable and I want a full refund for everything I have spent on this machine! If you intend on making this right, you need to list all of the issues that were verified by your Roland certified dealer. If you don't want to list them then give me a full refund and we can part ways. I don't appreciate you holding my business hostage and telling me that I have to sign something that isn't correct in order to get a new printer. How would you feel if you had a family to feed and someone was doing this to you? I was so excited to buy this machine I thought Roland was a top of the line company that produced top of the line printers, boy was I wrong! The way I have been treated throughout this entire process is truly disturbing! Then to basically black male me into signing something by holding the most crucial part of my business over my head is truly disgraceful!


Ryan Townsend






I need help, has any one had problems like this with their xr 640? Has anyone ever encountered a situation like I'm in with the manufacture holding your pringer hostage? I have had nothing but problems form the day the machine was installed. I though I was upgrading by buying a Roland boy was I wrong! I'm in the process of building a website now that will have all of the pictures, video and emails to document the ordeal.


Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for your time
RYAN TOWNSEND
 

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Triggerhappy

New Member
just out of curiosity, worth a try

Banding and random ink drops may be because of bad damper/s.
After changing the dampers more relevant tests can be made to figure out the different color tones.
Really sorry to see what you`ve been through.
rgds
 

Ryan T

New Member
Banding and random ink drops may be because of bad damper/s.
After changing the dampers more relevant tests can be made to figure out the different color tones.
Really sorry to see what you`ve been through.
rgds


I agree and that is what Jim with Tublite thinks is the problem with the ink drops also. The bigger problem Im having is Roland forcing me to sign a document with false information in order for me to get this resolved. On Monday I came in to black ink pouring out of the machine on to the floor! The printer throws a different error code every time I restart it and it will not even go through its cleaning cycle. The printer will not function at all!

The truly disturbing thing is that Jack Pozorski the manager I have been dealing with at Roland is refusing to acknowledge and document the problems. Does anybody have a clue why they would do that other than to protect Florida Graphics?

Jack keeps saying the will replace the printer for customer satisfaction reasons, that they need to verify the problems with the printer. They already sent another dealer out that verified the problems. As you can see from the pictures in my first post, it is puking ink out of it, it definitely has a problem!
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Did you buy this brand new or was it refurbished or a demo ??
How long do you have it in your possession ??
Is it a lease or did you pay for it entirely ??
Do you clean it regularly ??
Maintenance ??


I don't see the false statement(s) they want you to make. I was getting a headache reading all of that stuff. Can you pull that out ??
 

iraney

New Member
We have been having banding problems with our XR-640 for a year now had the printer replaced and still having the same issue Roland came out multiple times and as it is now we just gave up calling them we cant get a decent dark colored print I don't know what is going on with Roland but they have lost me as a customer.
 

Ryan T

New Member
Did you buy this brand new or was it refurbished or a demo ??
How long do you have it in your possession ??
Is it a lease or did you pay for it entirely ??
Do you clean it regularly ??
Maintenance ??


I don't see the false statement(s) they want you to make. I was getting a headache reading all of that stuff. Can you pull that out ??


I bought the printer for Florida Graphics, brand new in October of 2015. I have had issues from the first print job (the day after it was installed) and the problems have only gotten worse.

It is a lease with a $1 buy out.
Yes it has been cleaned regularly, I'm big on maintenance especially on an expensive piece of equipment this.


Roland refuses to list the actual problems with the machine, they only want to list 1 out of 5 that their (2nd) dealer verfied. They know I am going to go after Florida Graphics for damages and I feel that is why they won't list the problems. What they want me to sign says "Reason For Return" in that spot it sYates " cutter will not cut and for customer satisfaction reasons". Jack with Roland says they need to verify the issues but they have already sent a certified dealer out to do so and all issues were verified. I have the email from the dealer to prove it. They are up to something and that is why they will not list the problems. I'm just trying to figure out why they refuse to document the problems and are forcing me to sign something that is not true when their dealer has verified the problems.
 

Ryan T

New Member
We have been having banding problems with our XR-640 for a year now had the printer replaced and still having the same issue Roland came out multiple times and as it is now we just gave up calling them we cant get a decent dark colored print I don't know what is going on with Roland but they have lost me as a customer.


They have lost me as a customer also. Jim with Tublite t o ld me to try and slow the pier down to help with the banding using a 24 pass. It helps a little but it takes 6 06 7 hours to print a full size vehicle then the vinyl is so saturated with it I can let is sit on a fan to gas out for a week and it is so soupy it just collapses on itself during install.

I have found several other people with problems like this also. I'm not just going to let this go it's not right that big companies can just screw over people and get away with it. I will have a website up shortly. Please send me any info you have and pics I will post them also. Maybe we can keep someone else from getting screwed by them!
 

Ryan T

New Member
There have been lots of issues with the XR-640's.

Notice how Roland just keeps coming out with new models every other month? As far as I'm concerned they're washing their hands of the failures that are the XR/XF printers and coming out with "new and improved" models. (as if ink bags are the solution everyone has been looking for)

To the OP: Take the replacement printer while it's up for grabs. You got a lemon printer, like so many others have. You can only hope the next one will be a good one. I wouldn't let the tech leave until it is running up to your expectations either. I know of one locally that had to be replaced and we were almost at that point but so far the best offer on the table is (possibly) getting a refurb unit from Roland.

In our case the main issue has been horrible tracking when using the take up reel but we are going to try to solve the problem ourselves. Almost 2 years into the unit and half a dozen visits from our local tech (thanks Brock if you're reading) and finally a Roland engineer. We've had some slight ink starvation issues out of the box but nothing too serious.

Luckily our dealer has been great trying to solve the issue from the beginning but as far as I'm concerned Roland is putting out crap and not standing behind it.




I'll be looking at (any) other manufacturer when it comes time to add another printer.

Good luck, I really hope you get this sorted out.

I bought the printer from Florida Graphics and that was a horrible mistake, once they couldn't figure out the problem they just blamed it on me and quit responding to my emails and phone calls. They act like there is a button to hit in versaworks that say dump ink on prints or start banding now! Lol

I thought Roland was top of the line, when I started my business I bought the Mutoh 1204 it was slow as can be but I never had a problem out of that thing till the head went out 5 years later. That $8,000 printer was 10 times better than this $25000.00 Roland could ever be. FG kept telling me how well it cut and how fast the machine was, I have a Q54 and it can do in 4 hours what takes the Xr640 2 days to do!
 

Triggerhappy

New Member
why not fix it?

I agree and that is what Jim with Tublite thinks is the problem with the ink drops also. The bigger problem Im having is Roland forcing me to sign a document with false information in order for me to get this resolved. On Monday I came in to black ink pouring out of the machine on to the floor! The printer throws a different error code every time I restart it and it will not even go through its cleaning cycle. The printer will not function at all!

The truly disturbing thing is that Jack Pozorski the manager I have been dealing with at Roland is refusing to acknowledge and document the problems. Does anybody have a clue why they would do that other than to protect Florida Graphics?

Jack keeps saying the will replace the printer for customer satisfaction reasons, that they need to verify the problems with the printer. They already sent another dealer out that verified the problems. As you can see from the pictures in my first post, it is puking ink out of it, it definitely has a problem!

Look, i totally understand where you are coming from, until the document isn`t accurate I wouldn`t sign it either. What the politics behind the poor decisions from Roland`s part are... absolutely no idea...

What i can tell you is what i would do it it was my printer. (and what i would do if i had to service this printer): I have a new machine, it`s not running. Ok. call service, change the broken part under warranty. The obvious part is/are the dampers. See what happens, banding still there go on to the head, and so on. Any newcomer tech guy would do this. For me, the real mystery is why hasn`t any technician taken this course of action. Changing a printer should be a last resort, after everything has been changed, any possible scenario ruled out and it`s still not working.

Another thing that I have seen many times, and please don`t take this the wrong way, dunno if it`s your case or not but please keep an opened mind to this:
When something does not work as expected a huge amount o frustration sets in from the buyers part and being disappointed in the purchase everything starts going wrong, and it`s a downward spiral from there on. At the end of the day, these printers are still relatively simple pieces of machinery and the things that happen have a logic. Right now if it`s not cleaning itself the wiper could be jammed, could be because of the dried ink, or any other reason.

Keep the information flowing please, I`m reall curious about the outcome of this
 

Ryan T

New Member
Look, i totally understand where you are coming from, until the document isn`t accurate I wouldn`t sign it either. What the politics behind the poor decisions from Roland`s part are... absolutely no idea...

What i can tell you is what i would do it it was my printer. (and what i would do if i had to service this printer): I have a new machine, it`s not running. Ok. call service, change the broken part under warranty. The obvious part is/are the dampers. See what happens, banding still there go on to the head, and so on. Any newcomer tech guy would do this. For me, the real mystery is why hasn`t any technician taken this course of action. Changing a printer should be a last resort, after everything has been changed, any possible scenario ruled out and it`s still not working.

Another thing that I have seen many times, and please don`t take this the wrong way, dunno if it`s your case or not but please keep an opened mind to this:
When something does not work as expected a huge amount o frustration sets in from the buyers part and being disappointed in the purchase everything starts going wrong, and it`s a downward spiral from there on. At the end of the day, these printers are still relatively simple pieces of machinery and the things that happen have a logic. Right now if it`s not cleaning itself the wiper could be jammed, could be because of the dried ink, or any other reason.

Keep the information flowing please, I`m reall curious about the outcome of this


The 2nd dealer( Tubelite )said that he didn't know if the printer could even be fixed. There is a copy of his email in the orginal thread.There are 5 major problems. All problems are specifically addressed in the orginal thread. The problems i am having are way bigger than a jammed wiper or it not cleaning itself. It has s software problem also. When you crop or tile a file on part of th print is 10-15 shades different than the other part. This machine is garbage, it won't even turn on without throwing an error code it is dead in the water!
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
We just had our Roland worked on last week and is working at 100%. Not the same model at all. While the tech was here, I said, my machine is 10 years old and I know I'm on borrowed time. What should I be looking at ?? First thing out of her mouth was..... not the new xr640.

Not consistent, therefore no need to go any further about the machine.

I know that doesn't help your particular problem, but I think you need to talk to some tech people across the country and get an opinion of those people and take it to the horse's mouth. Some might be afraid for their job in doing so, but Roland needs to know the masses are fast becoming upset and might start some 'Class Action' cases. That kinda attention, no one needs or wants. It must be documented and not just someone said this.
 

oksigns

New Member
We have been having banding problems with our XR-640 for a year now had the printer replaced and still having the same issue Roland came out multiple times and as it is now we just gave up calling them we cant get a decent dark colored print I don't know what is going on with Roland but they have lost me as a customer.

I had bad banding issues that seemed to come out of nowhere, but I had to set my ego and own faulty process aside to learn it was profiling that needed to be tightened up and dealing with the constant dust and fuzz that I fight with. This was on a purchased new machine, and after installing an anti static bar, I don't experience show stopping dust build up on long runs.

I'm not saying this will fix your problems, but sometimes it's the little things- literally.
 
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