Colorspan plays HARDBALL with Customer!
Brian P. Barnes
I have a Colorspan DisplayMaker XII 72 inch printer which I am extremely
unhappy with and which I have been trying to return for almost 4 months.
Every time Colorspan and I get near a resolution, they send me another
contract which I can’t sign.
Immediately upon using their hardware RIP solution, numerous technical
difficulties arose which, in my opinion, appear to be severe bugs and
disastrous design defects (many of which I have thoroughly documented) .
I found myself repeatedly having to call Colorspan and winding up in
the dreaded technical support queue. Being an engineer with 16 years
experience writing software professionally, these can not be dismissed
out of hand as simple “training issues”. I have also installed Onyx
Postershop, a much better RIP solution, and been up and running in
minutes without looking at a manual. On many occasions, I had to wait
for nearly an hour to get any technical support at all. Many if not most
of the “solutions” I was given turned out to have been wrong, requiring
me to call back yet again. Attempting to bundle the printer with RIP
hardware, operating system, RIP application and printer driver would
seem to have been more than a challenge for Colorspan.
The printer soon started ruining output by randomly printing black dots
and strange lines which were not in the image files. Because Colorspan
chose to buy a stripped down version of Windows NT, there were
practically no diagnostic tools on the RIP station. Instead they had me
perform extensive, expensive tests on the printer itself without
learning anything of value. The RIP station turned out to be at fault
and had to be replaced.
Suddenly, with a series of four bangs as loud as gunshots and billowing
plumes of smoke, my printer literally exploded! I thought the place was
about to burn to the ground. Colorspan’s repair technician required 3
repair house calls and a week of down time to get me almost back in
business. He replaced nearly every electronic part on the printer
(“electronics box”, “trailing cable”, and “head board”), but in his
haste, he neglected to even attempt a printer calibration, leaving with
the machine completely inoperable. This is as inexcusable as a mechanic
replacing a car’s engine and not bothering to start it afterward!
Watching him like a hawk, I had noticed what he was doing wrong and
quickly corrected the error. In my “customer’s opinion”, the
workmanship was sloppy and the testing of the work was woefully
neglected.
While repopulating the RIP station with pictures after the umpteenth
reinstallation, the Colorspan program reported 91% free hard disk (with
a ~12 GB partition). I should have had a ton of free space. While trying
to RIP a ~100 MB file, the RIP process suddenly vanished. The log file
reported that 59 kB were RIPed and listed a "disk full" error. Technical
support told me to either reload the system or just delete everything as
the message suggested. I wasted many hours re-downloading and re-RIPing
everything I had been forced to destroy.
This is a major, destructive bug which makes it impossible to predict
when the system will be down for perhaps a large fraction of a day due
to catastrophic data loss! I decided at this point that this system was
too limited and unreliable for my photographic reproduction purposes.
Calling around and surfing the web, I noticed that writers had nothing
but the highest praise for Ilford, a company who sells the same printer
with different support. Their service was repeatedly praised and
technical support seemed largely unnecessary. Ilford’s RIP solution,
Postershop, also supports collage printing with individual, ICC color
matching which Colorspan can’t do. This makes the 6 foot width a burden
for Colorspan when printing photographs with ICC profiles as Colorspan
can only print one at a time.
Calling to familiarize myself with Ilford, I found that I could just
pick up the phone and talk directly to their chief hardware engineer,
their chief software engineer and their chief applications engineer. I
was astonished at their accessibility and how each person bent over
backward to answer my questions and to give me useful pointers.
Engineers don’t need to talk long to efficiently exchange information! I
decided to immediately have my machine converted to Ilford support to
escape what I saw as Colorspan’s poor design, cheesy hardware, low
reliability, unacceptable technical support and substandard repair.
Colorspan’s technical support manager told me at the start of contract
negotiations that it would cost me $5000 to replace the “electronics
box” in order to convert the printer from Colorspan to Ilford. I told
him flatly that I would send the entire system back before I would pay
$5000 for anything. Then he said that he only really needed to replace
the “I/O board” which would cost me $1800. I told him that I had no
desire to buy an $1800 Colorspan I/O paperweight and suggested that he
take it back. He told me that he would have to charge me for it but that
he would give me 100% credit when I mailed it back to him. He went on to
say that a third party would have to make the house call to replace the
board and that it would cost me up to $500. I agreed to pay $500 to get
completely out from under Colorspan’s support and RIP. He said that he
would have someone help him write up the contract and that he would get
it to me the next day.
The Colorspan technical support manager--who is authorized to make
binding contracts on behalf of Colorspan--and I agreed to this plan in a
telephone conversation. This agreement, based upon trust and entered
into in good faith, constitutes a binding contract in the state of Texas
and certainly constitutes an ethical obligation in any state.
True to his word, I promptly received the promised contract. It looked a
bit longer than necessary and as I read it, I was surprised (to put it
mildly) to find 3 additional provisions. The contract was labeled as
“confirmation of our conversation" so, naturally, I expected to see a
verbatim copy of what we had said. Instead, I found that someone had
added provisions to forfeit the remainder of my Colorspan printer
warranty, to pay Colorspan almost double the amount their technical
support manager and I agreed upon and to GRANT COLORSPAN BLANKET
IMMUNITY FROM PROSECUTION, none of which I had even discussed.
I was so outraged that someone would, in my opinion, tamper with a
legitimate contract to stack it in their favor, that I fired off a
rather sharply worded rebuttal (the tone of which I later apologized
for). I gave them until the end of the week to comply with the terms of
the true, telephone contract or to remove their equipment entirely
before I would initiating legal action. That was back in May, 2000. I
have photographs of used parts on a “new machine”, pages of defect
documentation, numerous findings of significant variances between
Colorspan advertising and FTC rules and DTPA regulations and evidence of
contract tampering. I can’t believe they are stonewalling me!
Working with the Federal Trade Commission, the Better Business Bureau,
Attorneys General Cornyn and Hatch of Texas and Minnesota, Governor
Jesse “The Mind” Ventura, Senators Gramm and Hutchison, Representative
Doggett, and Austin’s own “7 On Your Side”, I have asked that Colorspan
put me back in the condition I was in the day before I bought their
system. For the entire, initial 60 day period after a suit is sought,
they did not even respond for negotiations. Only since the Attorneys
General of Texas and Minnesota and the BBB have gotten involved did
Colorspan acknowledge any customer responsibility to respond with me.
The negotiations have never included a dollar settlement for damages but
have instead been monopolized by penalties against me. I have never been
offered anything close to a fair settlement because they agree to take
everything back only if I agreed to never tell anybody what they have
done or tried to do to me. They insist on extremely harsh if not ruinous
civil penalties leveled at me if they “believe” that I have squealed to
any third party, even courts, with or without any proof. More on the
details of that proposed contract later. Stay tuned…
I realize that I have ample right and reason to sue (MacDermid ?)
Colorspan under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, but I would be
most grateful for any strategic advise short of filing suit. I don’t
want to pay lawyers or rely upon my them until every other avenue has
been explored. Has anybody out there been strong-armed by this or a
similar company or seen such bullying? Even minor details would be
eternally appreciated!
Does anybody actually understand the relationships between Colorspan,
Inc., Virtual Fund, MacDermid Colorspan, and MacDermid, Inc.? Where are
the assets stashed? Who is responsible? What should I know, consider,
or beware of? : -)
Thank you,,
Brian P. Barnes
Engineer trying to Lawyer or >>> Fool Representing Himself <<<
brianp at austin dot rr dot com
The Pen is Mightier than the Wallet!
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