Machine greatly MISREPRESENTED (Kelly Birkhead)
Published Thursday, October 8, 2015
We purchased the AnaJet MP5i five months ago and have notever seen the print quality match the samples they sent us. It is doing nothingbut costing us money and customers!
The colors are not vibrant when printing on dark shirtsand the colors are very inconsistent. We have already had to replace themaintenance station due to a faulty gasket, and are continually encounteringproblems with either the software crashing, the machine freezing up whenchoosing options on the screen, and the printer stopping before the print iscomplete.
Most recently, the issue has been the artwork not beingprinted consistently or the software crashing on the computer. The techs keeptelling me to re name the art, which I have to no avail, and that will solvethe problem. The problem is the machine is not what was represented by thesales person (who is surprisingly not there anymore).
Anytime I order a shirt for a customer, I order two ofthem so the machine can ruin one, as has been the case. No two shirts print thesame even if it is the same art on the same brand and fabric tee. I have alarge box of ruined shirts that translates to much money lost.
When I do call the tech line for service, the minimumhold time is always 30 minutes. (I am currently on hold now, 12 minutes andgoing.) Then, after I explain my problem, I get the same rote answers I alwaysdo. Once I have explained that I already tried what they asked, because I haveusually worked on the machine for awhile before calling, they tend to becomecondescending in their tone. Don't bother asking them to read your file becausethey don't need to do that.
As instructed, I have downloaded and updated the AnaRIPsoftware, Main Control Firmware,and the Ink Slot Controller Firmware to try tofix the problems, but have not seen any results. If anything, some issues areworse.
Banding is the biggest problem I have right now. Afterone shirt has been printed, my nozzle checks will have many gaps and sometimesa color simply drops out. After performing the 45 minute print head soak, theproblem goes away for another shirt or two, but always returns.
Don't even get me started on the pretreat. Their cottonpretreat, PowerBright, stains almost every shirt that isn't black. I haveanother box of ruined shirts due to the pretreat issues. I will say that theirpoly treatment is better and does not stain, but you have to apply it a littlethicker.
Instructions are another issue with AnaJet. They give yousuch limited information in your manual an online. Much of my extra informationcomes when a tech emails it to me. They are not concise, nor do they match themachine with the terms used. For instance, performing an ink charge is in aninstruction piece emailed to me; my machine calls that Fill print/purge lines.Nothing is easy to find online, either.
I strongly encourage potential buyers to contact currentowners of AnaJet printers before signing the contract. We thought we did ourresearch, but should have spoken to owners instead of relying on the"reviews" posted on many sites. We added this machine to our existingprinting company of 30 years, and have regretted it every single day.