[Misc] Ricoh/Savin Tech Possibly moving over to Konica/Minolta Tech, opinions?

[femaster]

I am a current Ricoh / Savin tech through a local company, and I have an offer to become a Konica / Minolta tech through a different local company. I'm looking for opinions from anybody who has possibly had experience working both brands. Opinions on which brand seems to be more problematic.

Newer Ricoh products seem to have more issues than their older counter-parts, but I have no experience with Konica/Minolta at all. I'm trying not to make a bad choice here and jump into a tech job where I'm going to have more headaches than the ones I already have.

Curious which brand tends to perform better and/or are more reliable overall. I know everyone has a lemon now and then, but if I can avoid it, I'm trying not to make lemonade...

Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[JR2ALTA]

There's 11,000 Konica posts on this forum, if that's a hint.

They have LOTS of board failures, impossible firmware and pain in the butt feed systems.

But if it pays more go for it!

[femaster]

Re: Ricoh/Savin Tech Possibly moving over to Konica/Minolta Tech, opinions?

There's 11,000 Konica posts on this forum, if that's a hint.

They have LOTS of board failures, impossible firmware and pain in the butt feed systems.

But if it pays more go for it!

Thanks for the encouragement. The pay is a fare bit better, and from what I gather, the company is run much better than my current employer. I was hoping for a few opinions, but I'm happy that I at least got one..

Thanks!

[pic-nic]

Re: Ricoh/Savin Tech Possibly moving over to Konica/Minolta Tech, opinions?

Konica Minolta products have lees issues then the current line of Ricoh products imo, a few years back I would have said the opposite.
Ricoh Tech Support is faster (a few minutes on hold) and no training required per machine model
KM if your not trained your not getting Tech Support unless you use your Managers ID and hold times have always been horrendous (30 min is no big thing to be on hold)

Ricoh - Print driver downloads are Painful (one by one per OS/32/64/PS/PCL)
- Firmware downloads are painful (one by one and unzip unzip unzip)
KM - Print drivers download is Fantastic (one download per model everything included)
- Fantastic compared to Ricoh (one download per model everything included)

Website support
Ricoh has a ton of info but good luck finding it (scattered/unstructured)
KM good/structured info but their latest knowledge base lookup is a failure at this time imo

They all have their issues/good/bad/indifferent.


Suggest you go with the company not the brand/pay.

[femaster]

Re: Ricoh/Savin Tech Possibly moving over to Konica/Minolta Tech, opinions?

Well, I can say that the last few lines from Ricoh have been horrible with board failures as well as dead hard drives. I can't even tell you how many HDDs we've replaced in machines less than a few months old. They need to stop using those lousy Fujitsu drives. Biggest piles of crap I've seen. Replaced with WD Blue drives, and never another problem.

[CompyTech]

Re: Ricoh/Savin Tech Possibly moving over to Konica/Minolta Tech, opinions?

I am a current Ricoh / Savin tech through a local company, and I have an offer to become a Konica / Minolta tech through a different local company. I'm looking for opinions from anybody who has possibly had experience working both brands. Opinions on which brand seems to be more problematic.

Newer Ricoh products seem to have more issues than their older counter-parts, but I have no experience with Konica/Minolta at all. I'm trying not to make a bad choice here and jump into a tech job where I'm going to have more headaches than the ones I already have.

Curious which brand tends to perform better and/or are more reliable overall. I know everyone has a lemon now and then, but if I can avoid it, I'm trying not to make lemonade...

Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I've worked on mostly Konica Minolta for almost 5 years. IMO: Once you understand the machine structure, it's not that bad. The old Konicas were junky. The old Minoltas were complete piles of junk. The first and second gen KM lines were kinda wonky, but brought the best(and worse) of both worlds so to speak. The newest machines are getting better, far cry from just 4 years ago. I work on mainly the mid range models 30ppm-75ppm. Productions are solid but the engine is same as if you worked on one ten years go. Little machines like printers and small copiers are garbage.

I don't know much about Ricoh but, from what I hear is it's not good..

All in all if it pays, it pays.. A better opportunity is always good IMO, especially being trained on multiple vendors is good.

Good luck man.

[CompyTech]

Re: Ricoh/Savin Tech Possibly moving over to Konica/Minolta Tech, opinions?

Well, I can say that the last few lines from Ricoh have been horrible with board failures as well as dead hard drives. I can't even tell you how many HDDs we've replaced in machines less than a few months old. They need to stop using those lousy Fujitsu drives. Biggest piles of crap I've seen. Replaced with WD Blue drives, and never another problem.

I too have had bad luck with Fujitsu and Hitachi DeathStar drives.. Seagate has gotten better over the years but, I've always trusted WD far more than any other.

[rjfellizar2468]

Re: Ricoh/Savin Tech Possibly moving over to Konica/Minolta Tech, opinions?

I worked in both products, First in KM then Ricoh/NRG/Savin/Nashuatec. In my experience I have got tonnes of data from Ricoh support to help you in different issues you might encounter in field.You can fixed complex problem just going onsite of Ricoh - Technical Support - Knowledgebase Tier2. BTW you should focus on what you can gain by transferring with KM specially if they will give you increase in salary and good benefits by going to KM. It will be the same work afterall. FYI to other guys you can used universal PCL 6 driver for all current machine model of Ricoh.