Poor customer service from Epson and Auckland Office Products

Advisory: Posting while angry.

Last week, my Epson Photo 230R inkjet, which I've been using to print CDs for my hypnotherapy clients, started getting horizontal banding from the black print head.

I bought it last October, so it was still under warranty. So I called the store I bought it from, and they directed me to Epson, who directed me to Auckland Office Products, their local repair agents.

I dropped it in on Wednesday and was told I should hear the next day. I didn't.

I didn't hear on Friday either.

I rang on Monday and was told I'd hear "tomorrow".

I rang on Tuesday, having not heard, and was told "tomorrow". I said, tomorrow never comes. You told me "tomorrow" on Wednesday, you told me "tomorrow" yesterday. It's been nearly a week, what's the holdup?

They were waiting to hear back from Epson about the warranty claim. You see, Epson, in its attempt at the Gillette business model (sell the tool cheap and the consumables dear), says not to use refilled cartridges or you void the warranty. This is total environmental nonsense and, I have been told, illegal in New Zealand, though they probably gamble on people not being bothered to fight it if they just refuse to honour their warranty. The printer service guy who I talked to before I contacted Epson suggested that I get non-refilled cartridges, even empty ones, from Cartridge World, where I get my refills done, and put them in before I put the printer in for a warranty claim to avoid trouble. I probably should have listened to him, but I didn't do that, both because it seemed like too much bother and because it seemed slightly dishonest.

Anyway, I asked the guy at Auckland Office Products to call Epson for me and chase them along, which he agreed to do. He displayed no reaction to my statement that I was very unhappy and it was impacting my business. (I have had to let my CD auctions on TradeMe lapse because I can't fulfill orders at the moment - I work on a "make to order" rather than "make to stock" model for the CDs.)

I don't know whether he kept his promise or not (though you can probably guess what I think), because when I rang back yesterday, Wednesday, he was on another call and the person I spoke to asked if he could ring me back. I said yes. He didn't ring me back.

Today he's up north all day. The other guy I talked to seemed equally unconcerned at how unhappy I was, even when I told him that I would now need to buy a new printer and it wouldn't be an Epson, even when I told him that I had had only promises from them and no delivery, and even when I told him, when he said that they sold printers, that given the lack of service I'd had from them that buying from them wasn't even an option.

I mean, these people have my phone number and my email address, but they haven't contacted me once, even when they've promised to do so.

So just now I have bought an HP Photosmart C5280 online, which is a multifunction (printer/copier) and also prints on CDs. It looks like a better piece of gear, is cheaper (especially since HP are doing a cashback promotion at the moment), and hopefully will be couriered here in time for me to print a CD for my client tomorrow evening or at least for the one on Sunday.

I feel better for having ranted about that. Hopefully I'll be able to get store credit or something for the printer cartridges in the old printer (I've given up hope of it being fixed), since some of them were nearly new and they aren't all that cheap, even refilled.

So, learning experience. Don't buy Epson; if you're going to use refilled cartridges (which you should), don't let on when making a warranty claim; and definitely don't rely on Auckland Office Products to do anything.

UPDATE: Auckland Office Products finally called me on Friday to say that Epson had refused the warranty claim on the grounds that the refilled cartridges had caused damage to the print head. They promised to send me an estimate for the repairs.

This finally arrived on Monday, with some boilerplate on it that said if I decided not to proceed I owed them $65, which I instantly emailed them about saying that I didn't accept it - it was the first I'd heard about it. (No reply to this yet.)

I talked to Cartridge World, who were very helpful and said that if AOP would state in writing that the cartridges had caused the issue, they would meet their guarantee on their product. Apparently this often calls Epson's bluff and they honour their warranty after all. I emailed AOP asking for this. No reply as yet.

It's two weeks tomorrow, and in the meantime I have bought another printer, a Hewlett Packard. I'll be going back to Cartridge World for the cartridges for it, because they stand by their product whereas Epson, apparently, doesn't.

UPDATED UPDATE: AOP have just sent me a revised version of the quote, still with the $65 charge mentioned, but now they say "This printhead is unable to be covered under warranty as non-original/refilled ink cartridges have been used". Which is weaselly, because they're not actually saying that's the cause of the fault.

UPDATED UPDATED UPDATE: I talked to Cartridge World again, they said sorry, they have to say that the refilled cartridges were the cause of the fault. So I emailed back to AOP asking for that. They have never replied, and it's now several weeks later. I suppose I should chase them up but there doesn't seem to be much point.

Suckful, suckful customer service.

HOPEFULLY FINAL UPDATE, 30 September: AOP finally called me last week. According to them, they had sent a revised email, but I never received it, so they were waiting for me and I was waiting for them. Once we got that sorted out, I passed it on to Cartridge World. They are buying me a new printer, a Canon IP4500, since that's cheaper than getting the Epson fixed, that Epson model is no longer made, and I now wouldn't touch Epson with a long pole anyway.

Their opinion (and mine) is that Epson are hiding behind the refilled-cartridge issue as a way of getting out of a legitimate warranty claim that has nothing to do with refilled cartridges. But anyway, I'll now get a replacement printer, two months after my Epson broke down.

I think I'll keep the HP since it works as a photocopier as well and it's a backup in case the Canon ever breaks down, but unlike the Canon it has one cartridge for black and one for colour - expensive to run, in other words, compared with one cartridge for each colour, since if one colour runs out you have to replace the whole colour cartridge. (I should have researched it more carefully before buying.)

Printing, shipping, and hoarded information

Unsatisfactory Lulu customer support experience this morning.

Not a problem with Lulu alone, of course; most "customer support" is like this. I contacted them to ask about their freight charges. Here's the chat transcript, with the identity of the agent obscured because it probably isn't her fault, and my email obscured because I get enough spam already. I don't have a transcript of the exact question I asked, but it was along these lines: "I've looked at the shipping charge for a bulk order to New Zealand and it seems very high. Can you please tell me the weight and dimensions of a parcel of 50 books, 6x9 of 128 pages, so that I can investigate other freight forwarding options for myself?"

Chat InformationWelcome to Lulu.com! An online representative will be with you shortly. Your wait time will be approximately 0 minute(s) and 8 seconds. Thank you for waiting.

Chat InformationYou are now chatting with '[Lulu agent]'

[Lulu agent]: Welcome to Lulu. Please hold while I review your question.

[Lulu agent]: We have not heard from you. Do you wish to continue the chat?

[me]: Yes, I was holding as you asked.

[Lulu agent]: Sorry the message is automated

[me]: OK

(pause)

[me]: So do you have an answer to my question?

[Lulu agent]: Lulu charges actual shipping costs based on the size, type and weight of the item you are purchasing. The simplest way to see how much shipping would cost would be to add the item to your cart. You do not need to complete the order, but this will allow you to see the various shipping options.

[Lulu agent]: The best way to determine the cost of your book is to use the book cost calculator. You can obtain pricing for different trim sizes as well as see quantity discounts.

[Lulu agent]: http://www.lulu.com/includes/calc_book_inc.php

[me]: Yes, I've done that, that's how I know how much it is and it seems way too much. Sending it to California would cost $17.30; sending it to NZ costs $245. That's almost $5 a book. That's why I'd like the opportunity to see if I can find an alternative shipping method for myself.

[Lulu agent]: Here is a list of all the methods of shipping that we offer and how long they take.

[Lulu agent]: http://www.lulu.com/help/index.php?fSymbol=shipping_options_intl

[me]: I've seen that too. Are you going to answer the question I am asking, please?

[Lulu agent]: You have to follow the options that lulu offers

[me]: So you have no way of giving me the dimensions and weight of the package, even though that must be known in order to calculate the shipping at your end?

[Lulu agent]: Sorry, the only way is to add the item to your cart. You do not need to complete the order, but this will allow you to see the various shipping options

[me]: OK, clearly you aren't going to answer my question. Thanks anyway.


Since that conversation I've been poking around online and trying to find out how much the shipping would be with various providers - as best I could given that Lulu wouldn't tell me the size of the parcel, which is what the various online freight calculators ask you, of course, hence my call. As best I can determine that is actually what it costs to ship a parcel that size across the Pacific - it's $17.30 from Raleigh, North Carolina to Bakersfield, California, but it's about another $230 or so from there to New Zealand. No wonder everything's so expensive here (leaving aside the 12.5% goods and services tax the government puts on everything - yes, including books).
This would mean that either I have to sell the books for about $20 each or I'll hardly make anything from each one.

My sister-in-law, brother-in-law and niece are flying over in June, but it seems a bit much to ask them to bring a parcel which probably weighs between 25lb and 45lb - I don't know exactly, because Lulu won't tell me - plus I don't want to wait until June to get them.

Geography still matters in the modern world, when you're shipping atoms rather than bits.

It may be worth my while to check out that local short-run printer and see what they can do for me - even if their per-unit price is higher the shipping may balance it out. They don't have a rate card or a cost calculator online, which is one of my pet peeves - they must have a rate card somewhere, so why not share it with their customers? Saves everyone a lot of messing about.

Information age, people. Information age. Don't lock up the information, it wants to be free.

EDIT: the local New Zealand printer (Zenith Print) quotes me $568.13 (including GST and shipping, with a free proof) for 50 copies. It means setting up the files slightly differently again and means I will have books at three different sizes from three different printers, but it saves me about $140 over the 50 copies, or almost $3 a unit, when you take exchange rates into account (and exchange rates USD/NZD are the most in our favour that they've been since about the 1980s at the moment; if they drop again the difference is bigger). I'm also dealing with one, real person in my own timezone, who answers emails quickly.

I did tell her that I probably would have enquired earlier if they had their rates up on their website - she had said in response to my initial inquiry:

"The reason we don't have a rate card is because there is no SET pricing we offer. The quote request allows us to communicate with the customer, ensure we are getting the best product for them. I'll do the maths and have a quote back within 15 minutes."

Which she couldn't do unless she had a rate card. Could she?

How good will their service be? Watch this space.