I'm telling my story here as Kyocera will be causing the downfall of my business.
I wanted everyone to know what pirates they are and to do their utmost to avoid doing any business with them.
Harsh words, i know. But read below and judge for yourselves if my rage, frustration and despair are ill founded or not.
I've contacted Omni Technologies in PE (the local Kyocera Agent) and asked for a quote for an A3 colour multifunction printer.
On the 8th May 2012 Nick a "solutions consultant" contacted me and said he will bring two MFP's for me to demo.
I can then decide which one I like best and if I don't like either he will take them back.
A gestetner DSc428 and a Kyocera 8025 arrived on the 9th May along with Nick and Ivan to
demo it and connect it to my network, install drivers etc.
And there the problems started. Right from the start neither printer would scan over the network.
But after printing a few pages I noticed that the gestetner's colour quality is a bit off, and as it is an
old machine I told them I would prefer the 8025. Ivan said there is something wrong with the 8025 as
it would not scan at all, not to a flash drive or even to his laptop. Nick said they will return the next
day to fix the problem, whatever it may be.
The next day, 10th of May, Ivan and another returned and said they figured out that all it needs is a
firmware update. They installed the new firmware and it could scan to his laptop, but not to my pc.
I was told I would have to format my PC before it would work.
On 12th of May I did a few colour prints and was shocked to see the toner levels drop so much.
On 14th of May I wanted to print A3 pages but couldn’t. I finally found out that an incorrect driver
was installed and I could only print A4. I didn't get a CD with the machine (The first time ever as
far as I can recall that I bought anything like this and not get a software disc with it) so I couldn’t
install the correct drivers myself. I could download them from the internet, but internet is very slow
and expensive here, so I asked Kyocera for the drivers.
I was told it will be fixed shortly and confident that all will be well, I paid them on the 16th of May.
Later that day (16th) I did 300 black and white copies for a primary school, only to see that the
toner levels dropped by 13%!
I was told this printer would print 12000 b/w pages on one toner at 5% coverage. I checked my
average yield and it is no more than 6%. In other words a 12000 page toner cartridge at 6% yield
will print about 10 000 pages.
I told this to nick who sold me the printer and I also asked him if the toner i received is starter
toner (6000 prints) or full yield toner (12000 prints). He assured me it was full yield toner.
I even emailed him the model numbers and serial numbers that are on the cartridge but he was
adamant that it is full yield.
I don't remember when, but it was about the 21st May when I couldn't print from my pc.
It kept giving me an error. I sent the error code to nick and on the 24th they came to once
again update the firmware. This solved the problem and I could once again print.
But on the 24th, before they arrived i copied 240 pages on the 8025 and copied the exact
same pages on my old Kyocera 1128. I monitored their toners and the 1128's toner level
dropped 4%, exactly what it should. The 8025's toner level dropped by 10%. I told Ivan and
Regardt after they updated the firmware about the massive drop in toner and I’ve also
emailed Nick to ask for my money back.
I was not happy with this printer.
So far I’ve spent R 35 000 on this printer and it needed to have its firmware updated twice in
two weeks in order for it to work and also used 60% toner while printing only 1500 pages.
I kept asking for my money back and I think on the 7th of May Mr Peter Roberts came to see me.
He explained that the toner is in fact starter toner and about 55% of the toner is dumped into the
developer upon first use. Now all this makes great sense in theory but no a lot in practice.
They originally wanted me to sign a service agreement, but I said no, this machine has
a 160 000 prints / 3 year guarantee.
Now I ask you, how did they plan to charge me if they couldn't determine how much I’ve printed?
How it works is they charge you not for the pages you printed, but rather for what they know it could print.
So they would have charged me for 12000 prints even though i didn't even do 3000.
Also, the technical manager Regardt didn't know a thing about this.
That is why i think Peter's story is not true.
I've printed a status page and it said that the machine printed a total of 9252 but
I know i only used three reams of paper in it. So a lot of the toner is not dumped
into the developer because it is not a new printer.
I told Nick that i was willing to pay for the pages I’ve printed as well as a month's rent
(even though I didn't even have it for a full month) and he said he will pass it along to John Forbes.
Now, 17 days after I’ve asked for a refund, I was sent an invoice for 12 150.81 for installation
of the printer (that includes driver installation - wrong driver, I couldn’t print A3) Travel costs to
come update the firmware.
I'm also charged for Peter Roberts to come and talk to me - I did not ask him to come to me and yet
I’m being billed for that. How stupid is that? All he did was talk to me, something he could
have done over the phone.
I've tried contacting John Forbes after I’ve received this ridiculous invoice, but he remains
conveniently unavailable. I also couldn't get hold of Nick the "solutions consultant".
I doubt he's got a "solution" for me.
Now I ask you, is this fair?
What am I to do?
I'm going to report a complaint at www.hellopeter.com as well.
I wanted everyone to know what pirates they are and to do their utmost to avoid doing any business with them.
Harsh words, i know. But read below and judge for yourselves if my rage, frustration and despair are ill founded or not.
I've contacted Omni Technologies in PE (the local Kyocera Agent) and asked for a quote for an A3 colour multifunction printer.
On the 8th May 2012 Nick a "solutions consultant" contacted me and said he will bring two MFP's for me to demo.
I can then decide which one I like best and if I don't like either he will take them back.
A gestetner DSc428 and a Kyocera 8025 arrived on the 9th May along with Nick and Ivan to
demo it and connect it to my network, install drivers etc.
And there the problems started. Right from the start neither printer would scan over the network.
But after printing a few pages I noticed that the gestetner's colour quality is a bit off, and as it is an
old machine I told them I would prefer the 8025. Ivan said there is something wrong with the 8025 as
it would not scan at all, not to a flash drive or even to his laptop. Nick said they will return the next
day to fix the problem, whatever it may be.
The next day, 10th of May, Ivan and another returned and said they figured out that all it needs is a
firmware update. They installed the new firmware and it could scan to his laptop, but not to my pc.
I was told I would have to format my PC before it would work.
On 12th of May I did a few colour prints and was shocked to see the toner levels drop so much.
On 14th of May I wanted to print A3 pages but couldn’t. I finally found out that an incorrect driver
was installed and I could only print A4. I didn't get a CD with the machine (The first time ever as
far as I can recall that I bought anything like this and not get a software disc with it) so I couldn’t
install the correct drivers myself. I could download them from the internet, but internet is very slow
and expensive here, so I asked Kyocera for the drivers.
I was told it will be fixed shortly and confident that all will be well, I paid them on the 16th of May.
Later that day (16th) I did 300 black and white copies for a primary school, only to see that the
toner levels dropped by 13%!
I was told this printer would print 12000 b/w pages on one toner at 5% coverage. I checked my
average yield and it is no more than 6%. In other words a 12000 page toner cartridge at 6% yield
will print about 10 000 pages.
I told this to nick who sold me the printer and I also asked him if the toner i received is starter
toner (6000 prints) or full yield toner (12000 prints). He assured me it was full yield toner.
I even emailed him the model numbers and serial numbers that are on the cartridge but he was
adamant that it is full yield.
I don't remember when, but it was about the 21st May when I couldn't print from my pc.
It kept giving me an error. I sent the error code to nick and on the 24th they came to once
again update the firmware. This solved the problem and I could once again print.
But on the 24th, before they arrived i copied 240 pages on the 8025 and copied the exact
same pages on my old Kyocera 1128. I monitored their toners and the 1128's toner level
dropped 4%, exactly what it should. The 8025's toner level dropped by 10%. I told Ivan and
Regardt after they updated the firmware about the massive drop in toner and I’ve also
emailed Nick to ask for my money back.
I was not happy with this printer.
So far I’ve spent R 35 000 on this printer and it needed to have its firmware updated twice in
two weeks in order for it to work and also used 60% toner while printing only 1500 pages.
I kept asking for my money back and I think on the 7th of May Mr Peter Roberts came to see me.
He explained that the toner is in fact starter toner and about 55% of the toner is dumped into the
developer upon first use. Now all this makes great sense in theory but no a lot in practice.
They originally wanted me to sign a service agreement, but I said no, this machine has
a 160 000 prints / 3 year guarantee.
Now I ask you, how did they plan to charge me if they couldn't determine how much I’ve printed?
How it works is they charge you not for the pages you printed, but rather for what they know it could print.
So they would have charged me for 12000 prints even though i didn't even do 3000.
Also, the technical manager Regardt didn't know a thing about this.
That is why i think Peter's story is not true.
I've printed a status page and it said that the machine printed a total of 9252 but
I know i only used three reams of paper in it. So a lot of the toner is not dumped
into the developer because it is not a new printer.
I told Nick that i was willing to pay for the pages I’ve printed as well as a month's rent
(even though I didn't even have it for a full month) and he said he will pass it along to John Forbes.
Now, 17 days after I’ve asked for a refund, I was sent an invoice for 12 150.81 for installation
of the printer (that includes driver installation - wrong driver, I couldn’t print A3) Travel costs to
come update the firmware.
I'm also charged for Peter Roberts to come and talk to me - I did not ask him to come to me and yet
I’m being billed for that. How stupid is that? All he did was talk to me, something he could
have done over the phone.
I've tried contacting John Forbes after I’ve received this ridiculous invoice, but he remains
conveniently unavailable. I also couldn't get hold of Nick the "solutions consultant".
I doubt he's got a "solution" for me.
Now I ask you, is this fair?
What am I to do?
I'm going to report a complaint at www.hellopeter.com as well.
