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Big problem with printer engineers!!
We have a major problem with our Mutoh Valuejet.
Sorry its long winded but if you have a Mutoh you might apreciate the info!
The machine stopped communicating with the computer and the network card is part of the main board.
We also felt it was time to get a new head and service as whilst the machine was running ok it came up with a report that the head was failing.
We tried a few companies and came up with what we thought was a trusted experienced company that advertised that they could repair Mutohs as well as Roland, Mimaki etc etc
When the engineer called it was obvious that whilst he had experience on printers he was not conversant with Mutohs especially as he had to read the manual a lot!
He set about carrying out a service BEFORE he looked at the fault and then told us we needed a whole board. They suggested we buy this direct from Digi Supplies and get them to fit it together with a new pump cost approx £1200
When the board arrived we had to pay them in advance for ALL their time and they came down to fit the board. After fitting it the printer still did not work and the engineer thought a fuse had blown on the NEW Board. He messed about with it and even did a fuse repair but still could not get it to work.
He went away and came back a few days later with cables and changed the head again but he still could not get the machine to run. He left and told us they would speak to Mutoh and get back to us.
Now they have said Mutoh have told them that the head blew the main board and that the head and main board SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHANGED AT THE SAME TIME or the head blows the board and the board will blow the head.
They expect us to buy another board and pay for them to carry out further work.
We have no guarantee that even if we do this they will get it going or that they may damage further parts!
We don’t think this is fair. If they advertise as engineers you would expect them to be able to either carry out the work or have the contacts to repair it!
We have since found out that Mutoh do not appear to have a authorised service team in the UK and that most people don’t like repairing them – even the suppliers of the machine!
This is really bad on two sides ….
1) Mutoh are failing to provide support for machines here leaving us at the mercy of engineers who also don’t get support from them.
2) Unauthorised and untrained Service agents are charging us to learn how to repair the machines whilst pretending to know that they do!
I would also add that that they could be doing the same with Roland & Mimaki equipment but at least those companies seem to have service agents set up here which at least gives you the choice of going to an appointed agent.
I have given the service company a chance to make amends and will see what they offer before I name them anywhere live!
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20 Replies
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Steve
if you are based in England why did you not use Art Systems who are Mutoh mnain agents in the UK. I can vouch that all their engineers are highly trained when it comes to working on Mutoh’s and that recommendation is from using them myself.Kev
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If you paid by credit card – open a dispute with your vendor.
If goods or service don’t meet a satisfactory level then you may be able to get the funds can be held back / reclaimed until an adjudication is reached.
Dave
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Found out about Art Systems too late really. When we asked them they couldn’t look at it for a week and the company we went for seemed the same!
Are they actually Mutoh authorised?
The Mutoh website implies they don’t have a authorised company here for either sales or service. If they did I would suggest they make more noise about them!
Will go down the credit card and small claims route but I am giving them a good chance to rectify their position first.
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hi if you pm me i will give you details of who i consider the best in the UK Roland, Mutoh engineer in the country who will not rob you and is absolutly brilliant
Regards
Phil -
hi Phill. how many engineers do you know, to recommend the best one in the country?
it is usually the best to share your recommendations openly on the boards.
can you tell us tell us more?Peter
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Peter just back from holiday and catching up hence the reason for the late input into this thread IS THAT OK? (did not realise there was a time limit to reply to a thread) i am NOT asking YOU to consider my opinion, I am offering a fellow member some help.
F.Y.I I have used (just checked back on invoices) 6 engineers are over the last 10 years and would like to help a fellow member not fall into the traps I have. Not sure if many would be aware but there is one well known printer engineer working in the UK at present who was declared bankrupt and is no longer insured to work on printer’s but is doing so, its not my place to pass these details on to open forums like this, as I believe people must do there own homework and I have spent hours doing so.
Steve please do not pm for the details as this seems to have offended did not mean to, just trying to help
Regards
Phil -
Phil
I understand that you are trying to help. and that is what the boards are all about.
I also have had bad experiences with engineers. The reason it is better to openly post any reccomendations is that, for all we know (I’m sure its not the case) you could be reccomending yourself or a mate via pm.
By openly posting a recommendation, it can be seconded by others.Hope you had a good holiday,
Peter
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i may be many things but a conman i am not! and do take offence at your comment THE END!
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quote Peter Normington:Phil
I understand that you are trying to help. and that is what the boards are all about.
I also have had bad experiences with engineers. The reason it is better to openly post any reccomendations is that, for all we know (I’m sure its not the case) you could be reccomending yourself or a mate via pm.
By openly posting a recommendation, it can be seconded by others.Hope you had a good holiday,
Peter
Calm down Phil. I don’t think Peter was out of line here. If you know a good engineer, let everyone know. That is the point of the forum. I was on the same line of thought as Peter it seems. No need for secrecy. The assumption is you have something to gain by making it a private matter. I’m glad you don’t but your protest in your last post makes me think that someone has touched a nerve.
You are very welcome here Phil, but its not unheard of for someone to do as Peter has suggested. I’m sure others here would be interested in a good engineer if you know of one.
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If it helps anyone on here and providing the powers that be dont mind I would like to present an engineer of which I am proud to recommend due to his continued help and value for service.
ADM Services
Installation, Maintenance, Colour Profiling
Roland, Mimaki, Mutoh, Agfa and HP trainedI hope not to have overstepped the rules by posting this guy but would stand by my recommendation as he has been absolutely brills – never to much trouble to phone and ask advice and if he doesnt know about your machine he has the contacts that do. In our line of business sometimes it can be expensive to learn through our mistakes, if only to save my forum friends on here a few pennies then try this guy….. or just phone him he wont bite… much 🙂
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Thanks Andy, I’m sure that is a good help to those here that are in need of a tech.
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saved myself a few pennies from using the advice on here so just passing on the favour, however the only down side to this tech is he loves "Cricket"
🙂 🙂 🙂 -
Where are they? Can’t find them on Google?
Web address/ -
Steve
You say “I have given the service company a chance to make amends and will see what they offer before I name them anywhere live!”
Let me save you the bother of naming anyone live. With all due respect, and naturally with apologies for the downtime you have experienced thus far, we do not need a gun holding to our head in this manner, if there is a problem, and it is our fault, it will be rectified at our cost.
In fact I find your supposition that you need a threat to get anything out of us to be highly offensive – we run an ethical business here.
Firstly, there are usually two sides to such stories, and there are many contradictions in your version of events, but I do not want to get into a public slanging match with you, it is both distasteful and childish, however I do want to clarify a few points, and most specifically defend the good name of one of our engineers.
You claim our engineer was not competent enough to work on your printer – for the record this particular engineer has been working on the Mutoh Valuejet for some years. However, as part of his day to day work he also works on anything up to 15 different printer types and models, many of which have different service codes, different error codes, or other subtle differences in their operating processes – to recall every service menu and the way firmware works is not something even Einstein could remember, that is why they have manuals, and refer to them as and when required.
As far as paying up front for service is concerned, we used to work on non-warranty calls on the basis of mutual trust. After being taken for quite a lot of money by more than one customer, we changed our policy to payment up front for non-contract customers – basically a case of a few bad eggs spoiling things for everyone.
Finally I must add that back on the 13th November 2009 I sent a quote for a contract which was declined, had you taken this out we wouldn’t even be having this conversation now. Naturally it is your choice as to whether warranty is deemed suitable for your needs, but running without warranty means you are accepting the risk and hoping things don’t break down, the downside of that risk being that repairs can become expensive when you have no cover, or your job can be prioritized below people who do have warranty cover – again this is something we are perfectly open about in our terms and conditions.
Outside of all of the above, we will do what is necessary to get things rectified for you, and where the fault is ours of course we will cover any costs. But next time try calling me rather than using these forums as a tool to get your own way – had you spoken to me you would have found that we take customer service and satisfaction very seriously. -
A very balance & measured response there Tom.
Although I haven’t had the need to use you guys for tech, as a supplier I can’t fault your service, warranty or interest in how I was doing with the new product.
Dave
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Tom and his team have been very efficient considering we do not have a maintenance contract with them.
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Thanks for the reply Tom.
I didn’t post the problem on here to get a response from you, I posted it to draw attention to the fact that there seemed to be problem with regard to (a) service agents and Mutoh Machines. Of course I was also sounding off but when I first posted (see other forum) I gave so little detail I doubt you would have known it was our issues as it could have been any call out. It was only when we were told that we would have to pay again that I expanded the detail and this was more to explain the issues than divulge the company.
I need to point out now that as a result of speaking to Mutoh and other companies I believe their was a gap in their (Mutohs) uk operation but they have taken steps to fill it and have resolved it.
The thread does actually speak for itself.
If there wasn’t a problem the machine it would be working now and the thread would not exist.
We/I don’t/haven’t made threats – I made the comment about not going live to give the service agent a good chance to come up with a fair response,* and to put people off asking at that stage.
As you have brought the detail up, the engineer that attended informed us that whilst he knew all about Rolands he did not know much about Mutohs and he found them a pain to work on.
The rest of the facts detailed in this thread again speak for themselves.
I can’t believe anyone on or reading this thread including yourself would accept paying for a machine to be repaired to be told that you had to pay again as the first time the parts got ruined. What would you say or do in those circumstances?
With regard to the service agreement, it is true that you quoted us and we took the decision not to proceed with it. Our reasons for not proceeding were as follows.
As most people on here that have knowledge of printers the main costs are main boards and if you do not look after your machine – print heads. As parts normally come with a years warranty, the fact that we intend to buy a new machine soon and we do try to look after our machines we felt the cost of the maintenance was the same as buying and fitting a new main board, head and service. Rather than pay up front for this we felt it was better to wait and see if that fault occurred and pay for it then. I still don’t think that was the wrong decision.
* You have now told us by email that you will complete the repair of the machine at your cost and obviously we are pleased you have reached that decision and would suggest that we leave the thread there with everyone happy that Tech 8 has resolved the situation regained our faith in them and demonstrated to everyone reading this that they do take care of their customers!
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Hi Steve,
You say that you believe their was a gap in Mutohs operation but they have taken steps to fill it and have resolved it.
just out of curiosity, what have they done to resolve it?
Julian[/quote]
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I was told a company were going for training.
I may be adding 2+2 and getting 6 but as no uk contact currently exists on the Mutoh site it sounded like a new development.
All the other manufacturers seem to have main agents they recommend so it makes sense.
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I thought I would tell everyone the ending of this story and give credit when it was due.
Thanks to all that responded with help and advice it was all much appreciated.
Tech 8 were good to their word and sent down an engineer who clearly knew Mutoh Printers well and rectified all the faults even driving back home to collect some small parts that he needed.
As in all businesses from time to time things can go wrong but if Tech 8 continue to put those right things write and use engineers as knowledgeable as the chap that mended our printer I am sure that they will do well and based on the end result and final I would use and recommend them again.
Well Done
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