Who are you going to call to fix it? Sophie Matthews-Paul weighs up the options of manufacturers’ warranties and service agreements versus ad hoc arrangements.
It’s a hefty topic, service, and maintenance, with all of its implications, is probably an even heavier one. No-one wants to pay for something they never use but, conversely, everyone is swift to criticise kit and suppliers when a broken machine ends up costing money, lost jobs and lost confidence.
In an ideal world, a printer would happily work for its entire life without so much as a clogged nozzle. But, in working environments, these machines need looking after. Conversely, and perhaps ironically, if a unit’s installed which isn’t used very often, it can suffer from more problems than an equivalent which is in everyday use.
Service is a contentious issue. What do display companies really get with their warranties and how great are the temptations to extend initial periods into longer term, extended agreements? Who provides what, and how much does it cost? What do print service providers really get for their money in return for signing their names on the dotted line? In truth, this entire area can often be seen as something of a mystery and, like the ubiquitous lemon car, wide-format digital print has had its representative share of duds in its manufacturing history. No matter how much precision tooling and computerised production practices are involved, there will always be a Friday-afternoon machine which just won’t behave itself nor attempt to emulate its perfect cousin installed down the road.
For a set period of its life, any piece of equipment purchased new carries a manufacturer's warranty for at least the first twelve months and sometimes longer. But, curiously, the consumer often has greater rights over a packet of biscuits than a commercial investor might be able to exert when his capital investment fails to produce goods which are of a merchandisable quality.
When it comes to wide-format systems, what a user gets in an initial guarantee varies wildly from manufacturer to manufacturer but common sense also applies. Many companies, for example, won’t cover printheads in an initial warranty; others do. If a machine operator happens to smash the assembly into a sheet of buckled material he can hardly go back to his supplier and bleat about getting a replacement head for nothing.
At the other end of the scale, there might be the ultimate in cautious users sticking to the rule book and never straying into alien territory yet, for no apparent reason, the machine being used suffers from the same failed printhead, time after time. This piece of equipment is clearly manifesting a fault which could lie buried in its construction or components, and has something seriously wrong with it. Thus, warranted or not, the constantly failing printhead is an Achilles heel and should dealt with accordingly – for nothing.
Why some machines fail to work whilst others do is one of those mysteries which applies to all manufactured elements. With sturdy quality control covering production practices and components, the finished unit should run like a dream. But there is still considerable human involvement when a printer is built and, thus, finite checking procedures throughout every area of the production process is vital.
How users decide to address the issue of whether or not they believe warranty is worth a cent depends to a great extent on confidence and understanding of the machinery being used. Bad press in the consumer world has led to a rapid decline in extended warranty agreements that were more expensive than binning the insured equipment and replacing it with a newer, cheaper option. What individual users need to do is to work out their own capabilities and rank these against the benefits of being covered for the repair and replacement of components or, in a worse-case scenario, the entire product.
The truth is that some people are fascinated by the workings of technology and, for others, it is enough that they can open computer programs with minimal understanding. Having a proper working knowledge of both platform and printing machine can save considerable time and money when a call-out turns out to be user error which could have fixed either through applying a little logic or with some basic telephone support.
When serious capital investment is involved, the stakes become more serious and the decision needs to be made about whether or not to take out extended warranties from manufacturers or go it alone. There is no right or wrong solution; only the print service provider can, and should, make the decision about which route to take.
Users, particularly those with limited experience and knowledge, with a fiddly machine and tricky inks, would be strongly advised to continue with extended warranties from their original suppliers and manufacturers. These are the people who should realise, and it makes perfect sense, that you won’t get the same back-up if you start shoving third-party inks through your printer but, then, you complain strongly when the heads clog up, the nozzles won’t jet properly and the colours and behaviour don’t match what you’re used to.
There are older machines which have long outlived their ROI and which might not even be considered for warranty by the original manufacturer because they are simply too long in the tooth. Yet there are also specialist service providers who have clocked up considerable miles servicing and maintaining printers that, once, were state-of-the-art. These companies can be vital allies when an OEM might decline continuing cover.
There are some perfectly good after-market inks, many of them being formulated with a great amount of care and attention. Nonetheless, who can castigate manufacturers for refusing to honour a maintenance agreement if the user has switched from one set of products to another? In an honest world, everyone would admit that a huge amount of margin lies in the ink being used in a printer; for an original supplier to lose this business, it’s not exactly surprising that a service request will fall on stony ground if third-party alternatives are involved.
To look at the opposite side of this, there are many print service providers who have worked at the dirty end of their machines for many years and who know that there is every chance were a part to fail it could be put right quickly and easily. Adding up typical service calls across a twelve month period, it might be surprising to learn the highest percentage is down to user error, with the next highest relating to software behaviour. Yet, again, this can be down to an inexperienced operator or could be as a result of a computer upgrade, a folder in the wrong location, even a missing font or a virus – and all of these would take someone mildly computer literate a matter of minutes to fix.
But many people need the comfort factor, and that’s something that only money can buy. If you fall into the category where you are confident that you can live with a service which you call out as and when it’s needed and simply pay an invoice for that particular job, then no-one should condemn you for taking that approach. On the other hand, if you would be nervous about firing up a printer on a Monday morning without some kind of assurance in case its wheels fell off during the weekend, then your company would doubtless benefit from round-the-clock maintenance and support just in case the worst happened.