I have a multi-function machine from Canon. It’s an MP780 and was a very good machine until the black ink stopped printing. Colour worked, scanner, fax et al all worked but just the black.
The machine cost me roughly 8,000 Baht about 3 – 4 years ago and it’s had very light usage and been treated with much love and effection and so to get it back to perfect health I took it to Canon HQ at Bangkok City Tower and left it with them.
The next day I received a call telling me the repair… just for making the black ink work…… would be 17,000 Baht !!
The latest, top model, home / small office multi-function costs half that !! When I pointed this out, I was told I could buy the new one at special price because my old one was broken.
Is this some kind of lame method of making people buy Canon products ? – Buy a Canon and if it breaks out of warranty, pay double the initial cost to repair it or buy a new one cheap.
I am now the proud owner of a new HP OfficeJet J6480 All-IN-One and it’s lovely. Smaller than the Canon and works a treat.
This is no surprise. We are in an economy of “always buy more”. Products are designed to last a certain period of time, as short as possible. And maintenance teams is a huge cost to bear for these companies so everything is made to discourage the customer using it. It is usually made as a sales argument only.
I found that European brands are usually more reliable on products quality and maintenance as European customer is historically more demanding, especially Germans I would say.
I am not sure if there is any German brand doing printing machines though…