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Stitch Up
15-01-2011, 03:05 PM
I'm sure I posted a message about my problems with the Ricoh GX7000! Can't find it now.

Amyway, about 14 months ago I purchased a Ricoh GX7000 Gelsprinter for the sole purpose of dye-sublimation. I purchased a set of Sawgrass Dye-Sub inks.

The printer has not had a great deal of use but now I can't switch it on! Pressing the On/Off button just illuminates the power LED for about 2 secounds and then it switches off!

So I contact Ricoh and as expected they blame the problem on using Sawgrass gel inks. I contact Sawgrass and they ask me where I purchased the inks (Xpres UK) and refer me to them. I contact Xpres and they wonder why Sawgrass referred me to them.

So, all in all, it's been an expensive mistake buying the Ricoh GX7000! I expect a printer to last more than 14 months!! If it had been a £70'er I'd hack it but it cost a LOT more than that.

If anyone has any suggestions for a fix, I'd be delighted to hear from you

John

JSR
15-01-2011, 03:26 PM
This might be your previous thread: http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum/showthread.php?1548-Ricoh-7000GX-Won-t-Switch-On! (I found it by Googling, of all things!) I believe all we discovered was that it's pretty terminal.

It's unfortunate to hear that the only help you've had is to play a game of "pass the buck". That's a pretty poor show.

You should rightly expect to get more work out of a £500+ printer. To spend so much money, but to then be left out in the cold by the manufacturer, the seller, and the ink maker, demonstrates the pitfalls of using expensive printers. This is precisely why it's unfortunate that Sawgrass will only "support" (and I use the term loosely) very few printers - most of which are expensive.

I'm currently using a £60 printer and, if it plays up, I'll dump it and replace it - but that's because it's a £60 printer. I'd expect my £300 A3 printers to last a good few years, but they rarely seem to do so. If only Sawgrass didn't tie us to certain printers, we'd have the freedom to make our own decisions.

Stitch Up
15-01-2011, 03:39 PM
Yup, that's the thread!! I did search and wade few a couple of the hits.

I haven't given up just yet, another email to Sawgrass & Ricoh. Printerland is where I bought the printer and of course the 12 month warranty has expired, the use of Sawgrass inks would have invalidated it anyway.

John


Perhaps a MOD can shift these posts to the previous thread.

Kaz
15-01-2011, 05:57 PM
Daft question, but have you checked the power lead is inserted properly?

Stitch Up
15-01-2011, 05:59 PM
Daft question, but have you checked the power lead is inserted properly?

Not daft Kaz, sometimes the most obvious solutions are overlooked.

Yeah, tried the power connector - no joy!

bms
15-01-2011, 06:24 PM
If the printer is less than 12 months old then, through the sublimation supplier, Sawgrass will replace it (or at least arrange for it to get back to them for repair). We've had such a problem with a GX7000 and this is exactly what happened. Not so sure about a period of longer than 12 months though or if you've bought the printer via a different outlet then the process is much more complicated as I doubt Printerland would be interested if the machine is outside it's warranty period.

Ricoh won't touch it unless you're willing to pay for their call out charges as it's (a) outside the 12 month warranty period and (b) because the warranty, as far as they're concerned, is invalidated as soon as you put in non-genuine ink.

I think in our instance of the GX7000 not switching on it was terminal and even replacing the board inside the printer didn't help (which might imply the problem was before the mainboard?).

As Sawgrass support these machines, and as I've said on the forum before, you get support if things go wrong using their inks within the normal warranty period (and we've had instances of these Ricohs being replaced when the problem is terminal within the 12 month warranty period).

Ian M
15-01-2011, 09:29 PM
Think I'll stick with my S21 as it never goes wrong.

Stitch Up
15-01-2011, 09:43 PM
Think I'll stick with my S21 as it never goes wrong.

Based on my experience, you've made a wise decision.

Ian M
15-01-2011, 10:01 PM
Based on my experience, you've made a wise decision.

Thanks John. I bought it in early May to replace my D120 which was always going wrong & the S21 has done loads of work & never even had a blocked nozzle. To be fair & to repeat what Justin has said it is very noisy but, I can live with that.

Stitch Up
24-01-2011, 02:47 PM
An Update

During the last week or two I've exchanged several emails with Xpres & Sawgras. I have to say that both companies have shown great concern in this matter and a very satisfactory resolution has been proposed by Sawgras. Sawgras deal with each case on its merits, lets just say, I'm very pleased with the outcome.

John

JSR
24-01-2011, 03:02 PM
Can you post the solution so that others know for the future?

Stitch Up
24-01-2011, 03:14 PM
Regrettably I can't. I did ask Sawgras if I could and they asked me not to as each case is judged on it's individual merits. Suffice to say the outcome/solution was as good as I could have hoped for.

JSR
24-01-2011, 03:24 PM
Okay. It would just be nice to know what these mysterious "individual merits" are defined as.

Such a shame because this would have shown how supportive and positive Sawgrass are, and it would encourage new users to invest in the Ricoh printers and Sawgrass ink. As it stands, the outsider might well decide not to invest in the Ricoh printers because there are plenty of reports of this kind of fault, but nothing in the way of a resolution.

Oh well. I'm sure they have their reasons.

Paul
24-01-2011, 07:58 PM
I think John had it swaped :) thats why they dont want us to know :)

bms
24-01-2011, 08:12 PM
I think you could easily read between the lines on this one and it looks as though Sawgrass have done the good thing even after a 12 month warranty period had elapsed. Always good to know there is support when it's needed.

Ian M
24-01-2011, 08:50 PM
An Update

During the last week or two I've exchanged several emails with Xpres & Sawgras. I have to say that both companies have shown great concern in this matter and a very satisfactory resolution has been proposed by Sawgras. Sawgras deal with each case on its merits, lets just say, I'm very pleased with the outcome.

John

Glad you've got it sorted out at long last John.

Paul
24-01-2011, 10:38 PM
Always good to know there is support when it's needed.

yep. I agree ;-)

JSR
24-01-2011, 11:45 PM
I think you could easily read between the lines on this one and it looks as though Sawgrass have done the good thing even after a 12 month warranty period had elapsed. Always good to know there is support when it's needed.

Yes, but if Sawgrass won't let him tell us about it then no one outside this thread knows that support is there "when it's needed" and only those who trust John would read between those obscure lines. Without details, we could all be reading the posts of a shill (no offence, John, I'm just being a devil's advocate here).

I guess I just don't understand why a company would want to keep their good deeds a mystery. Good deeds enhances a reputation. Burying them doesn't. I'm sure there's logic there somewhere, but I can't see it.

bms
25-01-2011, 08:37 AM
Yes I agree JSR, but you now have comments below plus my comments which should give readers some confidence. if there were a few more suppliers on thus forum contributing then you may get more comments along these lines...

JSR
25-01-2011, 11:56 AM
Yes I agree JSR, but you now have comments below plus my comments which should give readers some confidence. if there were a few more suppliers on thus forum contributing then you may get more comments along these lines...

Where you see confidence, I see lack of confidence.

If I was deciding between a £60 unsupported throwaway printer and a £500 printer that's "supported" with vague comments based on vague promises of vague support from a vague ink manufacturer that wants to maintain secrecy, it'll be the £60 throwaway printer every time.

Secrecy and vagaries do not foster confidence, they foster suspicion. I know that no one else wants to say it, but I'm sure it's what a lot of us end-users are thinking.

All it would take is for Sawgrass to specify what is covered, what isn't covered, and for the authorised resellers to make this clear on their various websites. That way, we'd know where we stand. Instead we get vagaries hidden behind secrecy, and we'd be fools to spend several hundred pounds based on something so intangible.

bms
25-01-2011, 12:03 PM
Oh you cynic you:smile:

For the more experienced user like yourself you can afford to juggle with different printers and setups, tweaking it as you wish, try different printers, break the mould etc, but there are many others (myself included here!) that don't have the time to do all this and are happy ('happy' might be too strong a word:rolleyes:) to use the supported systems that are out there (and that comes from an end user's point of view rather than supplier).

We all have different views though and that's fine.

JSR
25-01-2011, 12:24 PM
It's not about being cynical. It's about wanting to encourage the use of "official" inks by making it clear to the newbie what is and what isn't supported.

When I first entered this arena, I'd been brought up to never put third-party inks in a printer because you'd immediately invalidate your warranty. We're asking people to spend £500 on the printer, £200 on the ink, lose the support of the printer manufacturer - and all we're providing in return is some vague possibility that maybe they might have some kind of support which is based on merit, so probably not.

I'm all for thinking the way you think and for guiding people in the right direction to use the right printer/ink from the right supplier/manufacturer, but there needs to be something "tangible" about this vague claim of support if we're to encourage newbies that it's the right thing to do.

I don't get why I'm the only person to see that.

THE METAL MAN
25-01-2011, 12:59 PM
Totaly agree with all you say
I done the official way printer and ink
and the un official way
both the same if you get correct ink set up

Ian M
25-01-2011, 03:13 PM
I wonder if Sawgrass have a cloack & dagger in their logo now.

Stitch Up
26-01-2011, 10:47 AM
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v111/datasafe/Printing%20and%20Dye%20Sub/RICOH%20GX7000/2ndRicohGX70001.jpg

John G
26-01-2011, 11:06 AM
Oh come on John - thats the old one going back :smile:

Glad you got sorted out, nice of them to include a full set of inks too!

Stitch Up
26-01-2011, 11:49 AM
:wink: :wink: :wink: :wink: