A good reason to call Kodak a bunch of criminals

[allegrich]

we needed to order two nylon gears for a developer unit we bought from creo/kodak in 2005 - the developer is not under a service contract, but the rest of our prepress equipment is under contract

the cost of two nylon gears $120
shipping overnight $43

cost to look up the part numbers of the gears they would sell to us $154

i kid you not, there is NO alternative they provide
it is also certain they mark up the parts

the people who came up with this plan must be engineers far removed from sales, manufacturing, and procurement

i will use this as evidence of their $154 shafting to the customer putting a serious mark in the wrong column when it comes time to upgrade

[Don OReilly]

I'll drink to that...
They won't sell me anything, unless I'm under service contract. And we're a small, mom and pop enterprise with a 4press, 2500 miles from their nearest service. I would never buy anything from them again, period.

[Kevin@Kodak]

we needed to order two nylon gears for a developer unit we bought from creo/kodak in 2005 - the developer is not under a service contract, but the rest of our prepress equipment is under contract

the cost of two nylon gears $120
shipping overnight $43

cost to look up the part numbers of the gears they would sell to us $154

i kid you not, there is NO alternative they provide
it is also certain they mark up the parts

the people who came up with this plan must be engineers far removed from sales, manufacturing, and procurement

i will use this as evidence of their $154 shafting to the customer putting a serious mark in the wrong column when it comes time to upgrade

Hi Allegrich -

We did some digging to figure out what you're talking about here, and I'm having our support team contact you offline to sort this out offline.

I certainly understand your frustration with this experience. If you don't hear from someone in the next day or two, or you still aren't satisfied with the resolution please contact me directly offline - kevin.cazabon@kodak.com

Kevin.

[J]

Hi Allegrich -

We did some digging to figure out what you're talking about here, and I'm having our support team contact you offline to sort this out offline.

I certainly understand your frustration with this experience. If you don't hear from someone in the next day or two, or you still aren't satisfied with the resolution please contact me directly offline - kevin.cazabon@kodak.com

Kevin.

It would be interesting to, as much as possible, keep this thread on rather than offline to see how this resolves itself. I wonder if other vendors charge to look up part numbers for customers who are not under service contracts. Or should part numbers for customer serviceable parts be included in the documentation provided by the vendor so that the customer can simply provide it when ordering replacements. In which case charging $154, as in this case, is punishing the customer for the vendor's poor documentation.

J

[Kevin@Kodak]

It would be interesting to, as much as possible, keep this thread on rather than offline to see how this resolves itself. I wonder if other vendors charge to look up part numbers for customers who are not under service contracts. Or should part numbers for customer serviceable parts be included in the documentation provided by the vendor so that the customer can simply provide it when ordering replacements. In which case charging $154, as in this case, is punishing the customer for the vendor's poor documentation.

J

Hi J - while I can appreciate your perspective on this, it's not appropriate for a vendor to publicly post such an issue with a customer. Certainly, once we've had a chance to discuss and resolve this with Allegrich, he's free to comment on whether or not we've addressed it to his satisfaction or not.

No vendor is out to "punish their customers" - we'll do what's right.

Kevin.

[Al Ferrari]

Kevin,

This is a public forum, and you state that you have researched the issue to a degree. So, does Kodak actually charge separately for looking up a part number, or not?

If this is Kodak's way of recovering the"cost"incurred by the company when someone decides not to proceed with the purchase after learning the prohibitive high price of a part, it is very ill conceived. The solution is to provide good spare parts documentation in the first place, and recover that cost in the original price of the equipment.

Al Ferrari

[OffsetGuy@presstechnician.com]

Guys,
Wake up! When you buy a proprietary machine they will stick it to you unless you have a service contract. Not only with toner based machines. Look at Presswreck they do the same thing to customers.
Imagine you buy a new car and the salesman never mentions you MUST USE OUR FUEL or you will have hell to pay.
Printers are consumers and yet you keep buying into this crap and then bitch about it.
These companies make money on the consumables and parts you are forced to use. Do your homework and ask questions before you sign for a machine. Ask your salesman who else offers parts and service on this equipment. Is your equipment proprietary or protected by intellectual rights?
We as printers should ban together and send a message to the machine makers and sellers
One source of supplies and service is not A Smarter Way to Print.
I agree to keep this online versus offline, but it seems like the big guys have no Bal%$ to do that. If you sell it have a customer rep post here. So we may all share its outcome.
Nylon gears are available thru many channels. Do a Google search on that one time. I replace gears all the time on AB Dick and other plate setters all the time. There are small companies out there that will make a gear for you with care and quality.
Good Luck,
OG

[VladCanada]

All "big guys" of press/prepress market do the same thing.
Two approaches to customers depend on Service Contract or No Contract, plus Stock Storage time converts in money as well.
For instance: LUTH (G&J nowadays) processor worm gear costs two times more than in 2000; whole line of Rapilines became obsolete but still supports with spareparts and shelf time adds to price.
I agree with OffsetGuy - before to ask for sparepart price AGFA, FUJI, KODAK etc, look who made that device and ask them for price, use GOOGLE.
If you compare price for the same worm gear from AGFA and from Glunz&Jensen, G&J will suprise you nicely
Original parts for imagesetters/CTP - absolutely another story.

[Happyprinter]

If Allegrich's post is true, Shame on you Kodak. We will definitely be considering alternative suppliers to Kodak in the future. I believe a company should make an honest profit, but, cheat me once, shame on you, cheat me twice, I'm going elsewhere!!!

[J]

Hi J - while I can appreciate your perspective on this, it's not appropriate for a vendor to publicly post such an issue with a customer. Certainly, once we've had a chance to discuss and resolve this with Allegrich, he's free to comment on whether or not we've addressed it to his satisfaction or not.

No vendor is out to "punish their customers" - we'll do what's right.

Kevin.

Obviously no vendor is out to intentionally "punish their customers".

Assuming that what allegrich has posted is correct - then Kodak has already done "what's right". If it's your policy to charge for looking up part numbers in order to ship replacements then your customer service dept has done what they're supposed to do - charge for looking up the part number, the part itself, and its shipping.

In that sense, there is nothing you need to resolve. There is no issue. And naturally, you are free to charge whatever fee you deem appropriate for this service.

On the other hand, if it's not your policy to charge for looking up part numbers in order to ship replacements then it appears that your customer service dept may have made an error. In that case, it might be appropriate for Kodak to publicly clarify its policy on this issue and correct the internal systems that resulted in a customer billing that went against Kodak policy and should not have occurred.

J