EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS

[Fat Bob]

Hi Steve

Yes mate I am of the same opinion as you. It has a years guarantee any way if its new
so from day one if you but the money they say they want per month in a rainy day account and pay for the repairs from that, Unless you are extremely unlucky I would
bet you would have anice little holiday on it. 😆

Perhabs Rob could start up a contingency fund and we all put in a couple of quid by size and equipment. So if someone is in dire staights to pay a repair bill they could have a interest free loan. or start our own leasing coperative.

….FB

[Phill Fenton]

Up until last year I always had a maintenance contract on my cutter. Last Year I bought the colorcamm and having now owned it for just over a year I was sent a maintenance renewal contract. After much agonisation I decided not to take out a maintenance contract 😕

I figured the original cutter (a summagraphics D610 – now nearly 7 years old) was no longer worth paying £500 a year to cover for breakdown. The colorcam also cuts vinyl – so If my main cutter breaks down I have a back up anyway. A replacement version of the D610 is no longer available – bit it’s replacement only costs about £2000 and comes complete with a three year warranty – so it would make more sense to buy a replacement now.

Overall I am saving £1000 a year on maintenance contracts – If I do have a breakdown that £1000 should pay for a substantial amount of maintenance.

Having said that – I think a busy shop with only one cutter needs to have a backup plan in the event of a breakdown – this could be in the form of a maintenance contract or some other system in place to ensure that production would continue in the event of a breakdown.

In all my time in business as a signmaker (nearly 7 years), I have had only two breakdowns. The first was with the cutter which packed in after a very cold overnight frost – but had sorted itself by mid morning. Had it not resolved itself that day – my maintenance company (Peter Williams at the time) had already set things in motion to send me a replacement cutter overnight to keep me running until my own cutter was repaired.

The second occasion was when the dongle I use for Casmate failed. This took over a week until a fix could be made. Fortunately I also have Signlab software and was able to continue producing signs throughout this time using Signlab instead of Casmate.

I suppose the moral is to ensure you have a backup plan in the event of a breakdown, theft, fire, or other event that could potentially put you out of business.

[John Childs]

Excellent advice Phill.

Some years ago I came to the same conclusion as yourself and since we have had two plotters one of the main reasons for a contract, continuity of business, has gone. Only the insurance element is left.

Also, the sums have changed. My original plotter was an Aristo AG50 which cost £5,750 and the maintenance was £575 per year, exactly 10%. Today a similar, or perhaps even better, plotter is available for half that price whilst maintenance contracts seem, from your post, to be about the same. That makes the cost today in the region of 20%.

We have recently done some cutting work for two local sign shops who found themselves in difficulties. We were happy to do this (we are not chasing the same customers) but it did leave them at our mercy and if our own workload was high then they had to wait.

[WP_Graphics]

I bought a 500mm graphtec plotter about 18 months ago for £300 and I can safely say i have never had a problem.

Speaking of warranty’s though, I’ve now got myself a PC600 which to start with was difficult to get used to..(It’s brill now) as I found a problem not with the machine but how close it was to my computer causing it to stall…. I have a 2 year warranty with this and 3 times I called Roland and they were here next day on all 3 occasions.. That’s pretty good for up here in NE Scotland..

Gav

[Robert Lambie]

Hi guys
I sympathise with you all.
Ive was in up to my neck in more than one occasion. One time was when our Roland cutter.
610 wide went down. Not sure, well can’t remember exactly what it was. Basically when the machine started it went up to find censors at each end and just stopped. Belt, motor etc not sure what, but had went.

We called Roland and like gav said out came a guy next afternoon. Had a look and I asked what was up?
In the back of my head I have £250 call out charge and £50 and hour every hour after the first.
He started taking it to bits. Dilly-dally over an hour later its back together and again I asked what?
He said 1 of 3 things could be up… but I bet it’s the motor! I said you sure. He said yes Im sure.
Can I use your phone… on he goes to Roland… send a motor he says.
I said “don’t you think you should get all 3 parts and send back what you don’t use” nah it’s the motor mate trust me…
Next day about 12 he walks in. motor had been in our place since 10am. Anyway opens up tinker tinker for an hour or so… nop it’s not that… Im like….”WHAT?” 😡 😡
It’s not the motor… it must be the belt… I said “are you sure this time” yes it has to be ive tried the motor and it’s not that. So it’s the belt or something else cant remember now.
Anyhow away he goes again.
12 next day in he comes picks up belt and tinker tinker another hour passes… nop not the belt. Only thing left is that thingy… feck sake I said. Why did you just not get the 3 in one go like I said… sorry I should have but, blah blah blah…
Next day he doesn’t appear… following day he doesn’t appear. Then the day after that he arrives…
Messes around with it again and he says well ill be damned… its not that either. I said fecken damned! You’ll be f********… 👿 👿
Im sorry sir but I just cant figure it out… he starts putting all the original parts back on the machine and packing up… as he just about finishes I leaned on the power switch and did the machine not start up and find the sensors!!!! My god he says… it must have been a loose cable and me putting it all back together have tightened something… well there you go…

Now can you imagine whets going through my head at this point? The machine has been down a week. We have paid a guy to do nothing all week that should be running it and have to pay a bill at £50 per hour for this clown to mess around with our machine. And that’s after his initial £250 call out…
Now if that’s not bad enough. Away he goes leaving the casing off the machine. I couldn’t find it any place and I could not let the machine operator use it as all the live wires were exposed… called him on his mobile and he says oh dear I think I have that in my box forgot to leave it in all the excitement of fixing the machine… “yeh right”
Ill drop it in Monday… Monday comes and nothing. Tuesday still nothing….
Im on the phone Monday and Tuesday asking where he is… a cheeky b**** on the other end says put a plastic bag over it or just leave it. You have more than one cutter. It says so here on your records from Roland. I said what the heck does it matter many cutters we have. We are a cutter down and the workloads held up. Not to mention an idle machine operator… blah blah blah… while saying this she let out a big huff and hung the phone up…
I couldn’t believe it… I sat there waiting as I called her so I wasn’t cut off… 5 mins past and the phone gets lifted and starts dialling… the voice says hello… and I say yes you hung up. I hear a laugh and she says as the phone goes down again. He’s still on it…
At that I hung up and started calling Roland… complained and sent them a letter. We got a feeble sorry from them
By letter or phone call I cant remember. Anyway. That was when we stopped using Roland as this firm did all their Scottish repairs at the time. “Equinox” they were called. I think. So in Roland’s defence I stopped using them because of the technicians in Scotland rather than the machines being bad…

Gav please don’t tell me this is still the same people they use mate
😆 😆

so with all this said steve.. yeh we do need to putour heads together and come up with somthing.. once the shops up and running and ive caught up ill have a think and try organise somthing. ill post somthing in the members area…
off the top of my head.. maybe if we took a group warranty with say 4 suppliers.. well thats if the whole group have 4 makes of machines anyway.. what i mean is.. we all pay as one.. but that covers say 4 call outs in the year. i may get one but you may also… then mike and then phill… but mike may get the four call outs in one year… and the rest of us none… does that make sense.. because we all pay its would be buttons each i would think.. and only the ones that really need it get it or somthing like that… anyone else got any ideas how it could work…

[WP_Graphics]

Feckin hell mate that’s ridiculous (hot) (:) (:) (:) (:) (:) (:) (:)

It’s not them for cert as the two guys I had up were both roland technical engineers.

Sounds good about a group warranty…

Gav

[Robert Lambie]

gav i think they are all roland tech engineers, or at least say thats who they are from. but actualy are local companies contracted to do their work for them..
maybe im wrong in yyour case but i would imagine it being more cost effective for roland in england if you are far up in scotland…

did they speak english… 😆 😆 😆 😆