I've owned a DJ 130 for almost two years. My present unit is the second unit
as the first was replaced under warranty.
While I agree the 130 can do a wonderful job, it is problematic and now with
recent changes within HP, it would be a non-starter for me if I were making
the purchase decision at this time.
Last week I foolishly tried to print on canvas with a resultant jam. In the
process of freeing the jam I apparently misaligned something internally
causing my 130 to refuse to load paper. The Tool Icon illuminated along with
the
amber warning light. Being unable to resolve the situation I called HP
customer
support. I was told that HP no longer supported the 130 with factory repair
and that all repairs were now being performed by independent repair services.
I asked where/whom I might call for service and I was told West Jordan, Utah
(Salt Lake City) or Las Vegas. I opted for Las Vegas as it is much closer.
Last Friday I drove my 130 to Holman's, an authorized HP retailer and service
center.
After a half hour inspection the technician was unable to locate any obvious
problem that would have created the failure mode of my machine. He called HP
and described the problem and was told the unit would have to come back to
HP. The Homan's technician was given a case number, phone numbers, etc., and
was quoted a $289.00 repair fee for 3-5 day turnaround; $320 for next day. A
bit steep but I agreed and drove 120 miles back to my home after assuring
Homan's that I would return on Monday AM with the shipping carton to enable the
unit to be returned to the factory.
This morning I returned to Homan's and their technician called HP to obtain
information, etc., as to where to return the 130. This time he was told that
the unit would have to be field repaired and again the same repair costs were
quoted. The Holman's technician then asked why they could not affect a repair
and was told, in spite of the fact that they've worked on 130s previously
and are an authorized repair station for HP, that they weren't authorized to
work on 130s.
HP is now sending someone from Salt Lake City to repair my machine. It's
pretty obvious, as the Holman's technician told me, that HP is in turmoil
internally..the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing or to put
it a
bit more bluntly, they couldn't find their butt with both hands. I was also
told by the technician the 130s have been extremely problematic (no surprise to
me!) and that HP treats them as throwaway products. I was also told that HP
technical support basically now has staff with limited, if any, hands on
experience with HP printers, simply quoting from repair manuals/scripts.
On the other hand, my experience with Canon support has been exemplary. I've
been planning the purchase of a 44" wide machine. Guess which brand it
won't be!
Charles Wood
