[Leica] Another failure of Epson 3800 printer

[kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney)]

This sounds like a good reason not to buy one of the refurb units, or at
least I would guess those tend to originate with early production models.  I
believe they are $895 at Epson online, but new ones at B&H are $1,295 less a
$300 rebate (if you buy $100 worth of paper).

Ken

> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+kcarney1=cox.net at leica-users.org [mailto:lug-
> bounces+kcarney1=cox.net at leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Brian Reid
> Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 1:45 PM
> To: LUG at leica-users.org
> Subject: [Leica] Another failure of Epson 3800 printer
> 
> I'm currently on my third Epson 3800 printer.
> 
> The first two 3800's died while under warranty and were replaced free of
> charge by Epson after I spent entirely too long on the phone to their
> customer support line convincing them that the printer was really broken.
> 
> This 3rd unit has just died. Naturally, it's on a weekend when their
> customer-support line is closed. So I get to waste another half a day next
> week convincing their customer support people that it's broken, and then
> another half day installing the replacement printer that they will
> hopefully send me and shipping the broken unit back to them.
> 
> I bought the extended warranty (Deus gratia) and it seems to cover me
> until December 2009, so who knows? I might reach 5 printers before it's
> over.
> 
> I think I've figured out what the meta-problem is. Every time they replace
> it, the new printer is a  refurbished unit of the same revision number. I
> bought one of the first 3800 printers available, and each of these
> replacements has had the same design, construction, and model number. I
> think I'm running into a design flaw in what the customer service people
> call "the board", i.e. the electronics.
> 
> If they replace this one and I ship the broken one back, Epson will have
> spent more money on Federal Express fees to ship me new printers by
> Priority Overnight and on my return shipping than it would have cost them
> to just give me a new, non-refurbished unit.
> 
> I wish the damn thing didn't make such great prints. If it wasn't such a
> great printer I would drive to Half Moon Bay and throw it into the ocean.
> 
> Brian Reid
> 
> 
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