Keeping Out-of-Warranty Gadgets Alive

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  flatliner08/14/07 Report as spam
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  Depends on the device and the need

  We recently had an important large format printer crash and burn. While it lasted some time after the warranty period finally expired, its longevity was not nearly as long as its predecessor units. The irritating thing was it was considerably more expensive than either of the two prior units, both of which were replaced out of advancements in technology rather than the units themselves expiring.
  
  When contacting the manufacturer's CS about possible repair, we found that they were less-than-accommodating with regards to support, which had not been the case with either of the prior printers (also built by the same tech company). Emails for hefty annual post-warranty service contracts ensued (on top of any work that we would have to pay out of pocket for now), none of which we wanted or even requested. We gave up and went with a local outfit in order to salvage our $12k printer, which was perhaps the WORST mistake we could've done.
  
  We've used this company in the past for miscellaneous services, including equipment repair, and in the past they've performed with a fair amount of competence and success. But within the first hour of their service call on our woeful printer, the classic tell-tale signs of someone being way, WAY out of their league were painfully obvious, if only our office manager had been critically overlooking their lack of progress and not hoping against hope that he'd brought in complete idiots to do the work.
  
  The sad end to this tale was that after two grand's worth of "repairs", weeks of downtime, and a new purple stain in our flooring (one of the two service 'techs' somehow managed to destruct the magenta ink cartridge during their work, itself a $125 consumable which of course the service company claimed was not their fault), the resulting "repaired" printer that was at best limping along on its final breaths. We had no choice but to buy another machine considering the debacle the repair techs had foisted upon us.
  
  The irony of all of this is that our new printer cost us under a $1000 more than the repairs itself. While it would've been more expensive, the cost in productivity lost because we were out our printer during those weeks was immeasurable (well, it probably COULD be measured, since we had to send out all this print work to outside services, then spend time and resources to double-check the results, something that could be reviewed and corrected right away when doing the print work in-house).
  
  We could've had (and ultimately did have) the new printer up and running within two days of placing the order. Instead we allowed some warped, innate need to save our old gear to get in the way. We wasted at least a week and a half attempting to negotiate with the original manufacturer's CS department. We again wasted nearly a month with the repair company we did hire. And in the end that we still had a necessary device that performed so poorly that we had no other choice but to buy a replacement.