I see what your saying. ... If you get another person, they will probably tell you differently and hopefully send them out to you free of charge :)Good luck!
I tried. I talked to another service guy at Canon this morning and e-mailed him the status report (after I had upgraded the firmware). Basically: the nozzles are bad and he claims a PCB board is also bad.
Now, here's the rub: The second service guy asked me whether I kept the machine on constantly or turned it off. I told him I turned it off after use. Oh, he says. It would be better to keep the machine on all the time. Really, I say. Where does it say that it in the manual? The service guy: Well, it doesn't say that anywhere. It is just something that we have found. Well, that's nice I say. Thanks for that little bit of $1,500.00 advice. It certainly would have been nice to have had the benefit of that information from Canon when I bought the machine, or when I when I reviewed the manuals. I would have left it on all the time!
Now, it gets better: While he is telling me all of this, I have 2 status reports up on my screen. The first status report is from the old firmware (from Tuesday) and the new status report is from today with the new firmware. Guess what? The new firmware has an 8 hour power time-out. Basically, it shuts the machine off after being on for 8 hours. I tell this to the Canon guy, and ask him, so how can I keep the machine on full-time? Oh, it has a power time-out, he says. Hmm, I guess that must be for some sort of energy compliance. But, he says, I think you can disable it somehow. (WTF)
So, I guess it is going to cost me the big $1,500.00. Just be aware that if you upgrade to the new firmware, you may have to figure out a way to keep your machine on all the time. Nice to know all these little secrets about how to care for your machine. Considering that this is supposedly a "professional" machine, don't you think it would be appropriate for Canon to tell you this in the manual ... rather than waiting for a failure, so that you they can then charge you the big $$ for a service call?