Konica C550 Service Contract

[BrentV]

Our company bought a Konica C550 and really haven't had problems with it yet. The place we bought it from backed out on a service agreement I had agreed with their salesman who no longer works there. The company will not honor it now and was a good deal gone bad (although I still got a deal on the copier to begin with) Anyway to get to my question. After looking at how much we are going to have to pay for a yearly service agreement, I am considering just not getting a service agreement for this machine. I know this might sound crazy but after running the numbers and talking into account all the maintenance replaceable parts (toner, fuser, imaging unit) we would have to have $14000 in repairs (parts and labor) for it to break even with a service agreement over 5 years. We have our own IT dept, of which I am part of and I have a service and field manual for the machine.

We could take care of the basic maintenance, firmware upgrades, cleaning the rollers etc at scheduled intervals.

Is this an ok gamble to take?

Would a Konica dealership sell me certain parts if needed?

Do these copiers come with any sort of manufacturer's warranty where certain parts would be covered?

Have copiers got better in quality that service plans are more unneccesary than they used to be?

I realize it goes against the grain of most businesses I know or are they just padding the copier seller's pockets with nice profits? I realize there are many questions in this post but any input would be appreciated. Thank you! Brent

[QMS]

Maintenance Contact

Hey Brent:

I have a similar problem ... purchased a used C500 from vendor offering service and won't back up now unit is on-site. We also have our own IT department and have been trying to get help from Konica which has been awful including 3 different authorized dealers. They all want you to have a service agreements .... makes us regret and getting one of their machines. Why sell a used unit? We are still buying parts and consumables! Gets extremely frustrating. Hopefully you have more success. Serg

[BrentV]

Just to clarify, this was a new machine, not used when we bought in March 2008. Brent

[fixthecopier]

One of the reasons to have a contract is for when you need firmware upgrades and other info that only the factory can provide. You can't expect the Mfg to cut thier dealers throat by giving you the same support that we have to sell a quota of machines to get. Do not blame Konica. The other brands will not give free support either. How would a dealer stay in business? Half or more of most dealer profit comes from service and now every IT dept wants to fix everything. If you figured the cost based on everything going the MFG sugested yeild then you made your first mistake. If you did not include the cost of blowing a board you made another mistake. Do not assume that all problems are cut and dry, if you do not have another machine to swap parts with you may waste some money buying parts that do not fix the problem. If you want to save money , consider getting a contract that is only parts and labor with you buying the consumables

[nmfaxman]

You are not taking into consideration the labor charges, the firmware upgrades, the experience of the techs and manufacturer support.
I can do the job of a good IT person because I can read a manual that is menu driven but it takes quite a bit of electomechanical knowledge to fix a color copier.
They are not HP's or any kind of throwaway POS printer.
Do you know what a potential sensor is or how it works? The manual doesn't explain it well enough to know that is what the problem is.

A color copier tech has to spend a few years to understand B/W before they go to color. Color is 4 times harder to understand (CYMK). Where are you going to get the power supply repaired? What are you going to do if an dishonest person tries to copy money? Only a dealer can resolve these problems, and if it isn't under a service agreement you will get hosed!
Bite the bullet and purchase the contract.
Penny wise Dollar stupid.

[10871087]

Penny wise Dollar stupid.

When it comes to color it more like "Penny Wise, Dollar Fu#ked"

You have a pretty high tech color copier, you need a qualified service department with real access to real OEM support. PERIOD. I can change my oil and put a new battery in my car but can fix a real problem? What if I go to Napa and get a Chilton's Manual?

Just look at these two threads to see why you need a FULL SERVICE contract from a real service department. By full service I mean Parts, Labor and Supplies included. And insist on only OEM parts and supplies.

http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/konica-minolta/11108-how-do-i-access-techrep-service-mode.html#post34022

http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/konica-minolta/11091-c450-did-we-get-ripped-off-error-code-c-b016.html#post33964

[BrentV]

I agree

I may have not been clear enough in my question. I totally agree I need a good Konica authorized service center to fix the copier. The question was supposed to be if I handle the simpler things, and call the for repair on the more difficult things, how likely is it that I am going to spend $14000 in 5 years repairing the printer.

In response to one of the postings, I can look more into finding a dealer that will provide a labor and parts only contract. Everyone I have talked so far will not do that.

Thanks! Brent

[Gamut]

In response to one of the postings, I can look more into finding a dealer that will provide a labor and parts only contract. Everyone I have talked so far will not do that.

Thanks! Brent[/quote]
Move your business to the UK we're not that fussy, moneys money.

[fixthecopier]

You are correct to assume that you should not spend that much on service, that is what the dealer would assume, and that is how the dealer would make profit. A service contract is a health insurance policy for your machine. Just like real insurance, it is a gamble. It is real possible to run your machine for years without a major problem, the gamble will be if you can avoid one of those problems that requires a factory backed tech. If you look at companies in other cities, you may find one that will cover you for major repairs and give phone tech support for other issues. Small companies will try harder. My shop has about 50 or 60 different plans. We write a new one for everyone who needs something special.

[pepper38_cnd]

If you do not want your copier properly maintained, try it your way. What you haven't told us is the difference in cost between what you thought you were going to pay for a contract and what they are actually asking you for. $233 per month does not sound like an unreasonable amount to maintain and operate that piece of equipment. You may want to find out the cost of a PM which comes up every 100K copies and takes the average tech the better part of a day to do the PM properly. Most contracts are on some sort of a cost per copy rate which means the dealer is taking all the risks as to expected yields and the type of copying you may do! They are not all getting rich off of this by any means , check out this thread.
http://www.copytechnet.com/forums/bu...-machines.html

[dogsbody]

i have a c250 and a c450 which were bought outright without maintenance. so far it has all been sweet with only consumables and a couple of breakdowns - (both had heart attacks when 4 x IU's, fuser and transfer belt where due in the one week).
these guys realise that every call is chargeable and that because every call is chargeable everything is done by the book.
So long as i don't have to replace a MFP control board (you don't want to know how much that will retail for) they will probably come out in front.
however they don't get any favours, when it comes to IT, under contract while i am there sure I'll set up another user to scan or tell you why publisher takes so long to print but for these guys it's all charged. if an image unit fails they buy another.
It's your choice but if you have a contract life is sweeter, i am not watching the clock under pressure to get it fixed in the hour because they don't want pay additional labour, i just spend the time needed to get it done, if it needs parts i just put them in without having to run everything by you, also you will NEVER EVER have the machine running properly doing even minor maintenance by yourself, it took me ten years to figure that out with my car.

I'll stop now but think carefully about some sort of service contract.

[mahou911]

I can provide you some parts if you wanna fix your machine right a way. I can also provide you some toner and drum units.