In October I purchased a new HP Z3200 from a reseller with a strong online presence. I chose this company not because it offered the lowest price but, rather, because I perceived it to be a service-oriented reseller. The fact is I could have gotten a fully-waranted refurb Z3200 from a local reseller for about $1000 less, but I elected to pay extra for the "peace of mind" factor from the reseller who paid for the Google hits, especially since at the time there was a $500 rebate offered for an upgrade from my qualifying old 24" vinyl cutter. In short, the promised $500 "rebate assistance" from the reseller was very much the deciding factor in selecting that company for the new Z3200 purchase.
Although the Z3200 arrived in a dented carton on a broken pallet and I could never fully implement all the features of the HP Utility software on my XP Pro desktop (HP Tech Support's eventual opinion: "it might be a virus"), I attributed none of these unfortunate incidents to the reseller in question. I did, in fact, enjoy rather exemplary service from this company until about the middle of November. Based on the always helpful advice I have received from forum members here at the Luminous Landscape, I made my 1st paper selection and purchased from said dealer a roll of HP Professional Satin Photo Paper. Shortly thereafter, I received email confirmation of delivery from the company, along with the most welcome news that a sample roll of 24" matte and other unspecified paper samples had been sent to me on that date as well! That was very gracious on their part but, unfortunately, the samples never arrived. However, news of these samples prompted me to, in turn, offer sample outputs to a potential client who was less than thrilled by my Pro Satin choice. When I inquired about the status of the samples via email (as the client, a graphic designer, was curious as to when he could see his files printed on them), I received no reply. My biggest concern, however, remained the $500 rebate, as I underwent a layoff due to a work slowdown at my day job in late November.
On 12/2 I inquired about the status of the rebate to both HP's marketing agent and the reseller. I received a somewhat curt reply (no salutations) from the reseller that I should receive my rebate no later than 12/15. To date, however, I have not received the promised rebate. A call to HP's marketing agent today said that the 12/15 date was "misinformed," and that the rebate was at least another two weeks out (although received and processed on 10/27, the payout period was now extended from 6 weeks to 8 weeks).
In the meantime, my Z3200 has logged two "severe" rated errors which look rather ominously to me to be an imminent hard drive or motherboard failure, and the HP Tech Support response has been to just have me continually run test outputs on my expensive HP Pro Satin and to get back with them if it should happen again. The Z3200 puchase was a big investment for me (an admitted "small fish" if ever there was one!), and I am feeling very abandoned by the HP authorized dealer. In fact, were it not for the incredible online support of the Luminous Landscape forum community, I would feel pretty much completely "orphaned". What's more, I am now nearly at the end of all my "starter" inks and was hoping that I could offset the considerable expense of the higher capacity 130 ml set with the $500 rebate.