The i series will push me into retirement

[copyman]

I could of retired a few years ago but decided to work a few more years. Not so much for the money but more to keep busy. Plus many of my customers have become friends over the last 20+ years and don't want to throw them to the shark companies out there.
But these i series are such pieces of shit I may get fed up and walk away. Today was the straw that broke the camels back. C250i with 22k clicks on meter with first a 3425 then a 3426 code. Suspect fuser is bad since it wont trouble reset. Add that to the CPU trouble I had recently with another low meter. Or the squeaking noise from C3350i exit rollers, etc etc! This just shouldn't happen with a low meter machines! Guess I was spoiled with the 4 & 8 series reliability where most fusers lasted life of machine!

Was going to switch to Canon but to close to retirement for that. Going to hang in a little longer but one foot is out the door.....

Sorry for venting here.

[jwai]

same feeling, poor performance these i series machines.

[adecanmin]

I could of retired a few years ago but decided to work a few more years. Not so much for the money but more to keep busy. Plus many of my customers have become friends over the last 20+ years and don't want to throw them to the shark companies out there.
But these i series are such pieces of shit I may get fed up and walk away. Today was the straw that broke the camels back. C250i with 22k clicks on meter with first a 3425 then a 3426 code. Suspect fuser is bad since it wont trouble reset. Add that to the CPU trouble I had recently with another low meter. Or the squeaking noise from C3350i exit rollers, etc etc! This just shouldn't happen with a low meter machines! Guess I was spoiled with the 4 & 8 series reliability where most fusers lasted life of machine!

Was going to switch to Canon but to close to retirement for that. Going to hang in a little longer but one foot is out the door.....

Sorry for venting here.

I haven't jumped to the i series. Still rocking the 8 series. Was waiting to see if the i series have improved with firmware and hardware updates. Based on the what I've read, they still are bad.

[copyman]

I haven't jumped to the i series. Still rocking the 8 series. Was waiting to see if the i series have improved with firmware and hardware updates. Based on the what I've read, they still are bad.

I was trying to ride out the "8's" as long as I could but they dried up and now only a few decent ones show up at off lease warehouse. The off lease "4" series lasted a long time but think there were less 8's because of the few years off with Covid & then shortage of machines. If you saw some of my posts from a few years back you will see I was posting "going to stick with 8's as long as I can, too many horror stories with the "i' series". Sucks not having confidence in your brand.
Fortunately most of my 200 accounts have 8 series with a few 4's still out there.
I've sold around 25 "i" series so far and that is 25 to many! I see it this way, Kon/Min had a good footprint with the 4 & 8 series and could of kept that platform with some simple changes like the touch screen, etc. Why over design the damn thing? If you can't design a reliable CPU & storage board then leave the friggen HDD in machine!
Not sure if they corrected things with the new "1's" , if not this could end up being really bad for Kon/Min. I know of of a Pro-Tech dealership that switched to Canon because they got fed up with i series. My friend is service mgr and after 45 years with Kon/Min he said he likes the Canon boxes a lot more than i series!

[adecanmin]

I was trying to ride out the "8's" as long as I could but they dried up and now only a few decent ones show up at off lease warehouse. The off lease "4" series lasted a long time but think there were less 8's because of the few years off with Covid & then shortage of machines. If you saw some of my posts from a few years back you will see I was posting "going to stick with 8's as long as I can, too many horror stories with the "i' series". Sucks not having confidence in your brand.
Fortunately most of my 200 accounts have 8 series with a few 4's still out there.
I've sold around 25 "i" series so far and that is 25 to many! I see it this way, Kon/Min had a good footprint with the 4 & 8 series and could of kept that platform with some simple changes like the touch screen, etc. Why over design the damn thing? If you can't design a reliable CPU & storage board then leave the friggen HDD in machine!
Not sure if they corrected things with the new "1's" , if not this could end up being really bad for Kon/Min. I know of of a Pro-Tech dealership that switched to Canon because they got fed up with i series. My friend is service mgr and after 45 years with Kon/Min he said he likes the Canon boxes a lot more than i series!

Great insights

I don't have as many accounts as you, so I might only need an 8 series here and there. I've worked on a few Canons. They seem pretty solid. I'll probably buy a few i series if I can get them cheap enough and see how it goes. It's probably not going to end well.

[copyman]

Great insights

I don't have as many accounts as you, so I might only need an 8 series here and there. I've worked on a few Canons. They seem pretty solid. I'll probably buy a few i series if I can get them cheap enough and see how it goes. It's probably not going to end well.

You might be better off that you waited this long. Most of the machines now likely have the updated fuser, etc. But even with all the updated parts, firmware, and "prayers" you still have that CPU issue that can completely disable the machine at any time! I can't remember a recent Kon/Min model that you had to worry about a machine being completely disabled, maybe a quality issue or one of the trays jamming, etc. but you could always get the customer back working until serviced.
Oh well hopefully the Kon/Min DSM's out in the field are seeing the issues and reporting back to Japan that dealers and branch offices are very unhappy........

[adecanmin]

You might be better off that you waited this long. Most of the machines now likely have the updated fuser, etc. But even with all the updated parts, firmware, and "prayers" you still have that CPU issue that can completely disable the machine at any time! I can't remember a recent Kon/Min model that you had to worry about a machine being completely disabled, maybe a quality issue or one of the trays jamming, etc. but you could always get the customer back working until serviced.
Oh well hopefully the Kon/Min DSM's out in the field are seeing the issues and reporting back to Japan that dealers and branch offices are very unhappy........

In another 2 years max, maybe the 1 series will be better and I may jump to that one. You have to be an optimist to work on modern Konica Minoltas.

[copyman]

That is funny, "you have to be an optimist to work on modern Kon/Min". That sounds good but being optimistic doesn't pay the bills. I would say "you have to be religious to work on modern Konica Minoltas" and say all the prayers you can.
Basically Kon/Min screwed the end user & the dealers, 1st with the toner shortage and 2nd with the "i" series! One more stike and they are out!

[adecanmin]

That is funny, "you have to be an optimist to work on modern Kon/Min". That sounds good but being optimistic doesn't pay the bills. I would say "you have to be religious to work on modern Konica Minoltas" and say all the prayers you can.
Basically Kon/Min screwed the end user & the dealers, 1st with the toner shortage and 2nd with the "i" series! One more stike and they are out!

Is seems these day most products ( cars, hvac, refrigerators, washers, dryers etc..) just don't last like they used to. Konica Minolta has joined the club. Honda automobiles for example, I drive a 2011 are much better than the new stuff. I still have a hand full if c360s out in the field. They are outdated of course but i have one that has 1.8 million on it. It still works but I'm upgrading them to an 8 series. I plan to give it to someone that has a c250 that still works but needs to be replaced. I don't expect the newer units to make it this far. Like you I plan to do this job for maybe another 5 to 7 years, so no Canons for me.

[Black Cloud]

In another 2 years max, maybe the 1 series will be better and I may jump to that one. You have to be an optimist to work on modern Konica Minoltas.

I just did a CPUB on a 7 month old BH451i, so there is your answer.

[ThisPete]

We used to have quite a lot of 4/e & 8/e machines and they were good to be fair.. Kyocera caught up in terms of print quality and were better on price..

We see some 'i' series for other dealers.. obviously designed/dictated by 'bean counters'... utter rubbish in our admitted limited experience...

[mojorolla]

I know your pain copymen...

We started off with a dozen Meritech boxes (rebadged KM i Series). Of the dozen, 7 had major issues and 3 had the CPU issues. Just getting toner was a Herculin task for months, failing drums at 20k, fuser issues, toner clumping issues, constant firmware updates, that stupid fu&^ing Marketplace app, etc.. just a total shitshow. KM ended up folding Meritech and at that point we jumped ship and never looked back. It was a blessing in disguise.

[copyman]

I know your pain copymen...

We started off with a dozen Meritech boxes (rebadged KM i Series). Of the dozen, 7 had major issues and 3 had the CPU issues. Just getting toner was a Herculin task for months, failing drums at 20k, fuser issues, toner clumping issues, constant firmware updates, that stupid fu&^ing Marketplace app, etc.. just a total shitshow. KM ended up folding Meritech and at that point we jumped ship and never looked back. It was a blessing in disguise.

Couldn't of said it better. Good to hear it's not just me that feels this way.

[copyman]

I just did a CPUB on a 7 month old BH451i, so there is your answer.

Ouch!

[adecanmin]

Not good