Yearly 'maintenance' charges

[David]

ours is 1200-1300 a month here for 6 seats of Esko.
Updates are included as well as phone and local support.

[Farabomb]

$1200 per month.

That is the difference in our contracts. We are $750 quarterly, that adds up to 3k/yr. This in only for phone support and minimal software updates on the workflow. Our Plate setters are so old I have to conduct a seance in order to get support.

[G_Town]

Interesting. I don't have knowledge of our accounting dept information but from the questions I've asked it sounds like our RIP/platemaker purchase was a one time deal and there's no service contract.

Not every company purchases a support contract, at my old company we NEVER had one.

[gtrev]

Cripes just put a service call into Heidelberg Australia for a jam on our Suprasetter - WTF - was routed thru to Kodak?

Now we are F+#$*d! - in our neck of the woods they are now working together!

...---... ...---...

[frailer]

Cripes just put a service call into Heidelberg Australia for a jam on our Suprasetter - WTF - was routed thru to Kodak?

Now we are F+#$*d! - in our neck of the woods they are now working together!

...---... ...---...

Cue Twilight Zone theme...   :shocked:

[Farabomb]

God bless.

[EyeTech]

I don't want to piss off the f*ck up fairy but we've never had a service contract on anything. 21yrs, 6 presses, 2 imagesetters, 1 ctp.

I figured that the amount they were asking for would amount to the same as calling an engineer out ad hoc.

eg AGFA wanted around 8K GBP per annum on our CTP so we declined.

In 6 yrs we've had 2 sensors go squiffy on the processor (90GBP from AGFA...annoyingly they were out of stock at our local electronics shop but they were less than 7GBP each there) they were a breeze to replace. We had one call out on the CTP to tighten a farkin' screw on the plate cassette (400GBP callout!) and the cleaning down and relube of the plate punch mechanism which I did myself...  and that's it.

I wouldn't recommend it for every print shop - it depends how hands on you are and if you know the right people to ask in the event of an issue.

[frailer]

Yep, with you on the setter/hardware thing. But I was referring more to workflow updates/upgrades/bugfixes... I should have made it clearer. I cannot imagine running a worjflow that was frozen at some point. 'Enhancements' never stop.   :rolleyes:

Image setter; yeah, plate drops/errors, no worries. Obviously wouldn't go near  any laser/optics unit stuff. But processor...I just stripped a pump down, cleaned, reassembled this afternoon. And pretty much source my own parts for it. Actually, Joe the Human Search Engine found the parts guy here in Western Australia...in one of his idle moments.    :laugh:

[EyeTech]

OK now that we're pushing our chests out...

I clean the Palladio mirror every 3 months (if anyone want instructions just ask)
I also fitted our Baldwin IR water Jacket to our 6 col Lithrone (saved around 800GBP)
Replaced broken chains on delivery and feeder on Lithron 426 & 428
Replaced shear pin on guillotine
Replaced
Replaced Polar guillotine blade position sensors (18.00GBP from RS Components or 750.00GBP from Heidelberg)
I housekeep all the Macs (the PCs I don't touch as they're only servers)

There's other boring stuff I can't remember.

I draw the line at fancy electronic PCBs / heavy mechanical  strip downs or stuff I can't fathom inside 24hrs....other than that it would mean shelling out hundreds if not thousands of $$$$ and that we ain't got.

[gtrev]

Cripes..... I hope your getting suitably rewarded for all that!

[frailer]

OK, I'm impressed, but where are you getting the time?   :undecided:  Fuji tell me there are some people out there who won't even clean their own processors. Other end of the spectrum, I guess.   :laugh:

[EyeTech]

Cripes..... I hope your getting suitably rewarded for all that!

The reward is I get to keep my company from financially imploding.

OK, I'm impressed, but where are you getting the time?   :undecided:  Fuji tell me there are some people out there who won't even clean their own processors. Other end of the spectrum, I guess.   :laugh:

Errr...I forgot I also clean the the processor out every month...usually at the weekend to avoid downtime in the week.

There's plenty of time ... the 'fixups' I do are sporadic and born of necessity.

I only once paid a guy to clean the processor when I was away and we were getting 'dirty' plates...400GBP! Never again.

The cleandown takes me 3 hours with one man helping, or 4 hours on my own.

[gnubler]

The cleandown takes me 3 hours with one man helping, or 4 hours on my own.

Bet you could get that down to 2 1/2 if a woman helped. :laugh:

Must be a complicated machine. I can clean our processor in under an hour. Maybe I'm just a fast cleaner.

[EyeTech]

AGFA LP68, 3 tanks to drain, 26 rollers to remove and scrub clean, filter, lids to clean, tanks to make utterly clean no residue, then refit all rollers and make sure it all runs sweet...

You reckon two and a half hours hours? I'll get you on a plane next time it's due  :laugh:

[frailer]

AGFA LP68, 3 tanks to drain, 26 rollers to remove and scrub clean, filter, lids to clean, tanks to make utterly clean no residue, then refit all rollers and make sure it all runs sweet...

You reckon two and a half hours hours? I'll get you on a plane next time it's due  :laugh:

You're a braver man than I am, Gunga...    :shocked: