Should I accept a new Epson Pro 3880 with 4 year old software, to be a "new" printer?

[Rhossydd]

Some responses could almost have come from Epson employees, not from critical users!

You asked a question and you've had a range of replies disagreeing with your point of view. The responses don't come from Epson employees, but from people with a pragmatic understanding of how these products are sold. There's nothing to be gained from being unnecessarily critical of companies.

If most of you consider this to be fine Epson customer service....?

People here have given you examples of excellent customer service from Epson on the things that really matter, continuing software updates, repairing warranty issues etc. I even had a free half day printing course when I bought my 3800.
Expecting that every product has to have it's documentation rewritten and replaced when other companies change their products is an unrealistic expectation.

(poorly edited in the first place)

An ironic comment, given that all but one of your comments have grammatical or spelling errors.

[howardm]

It takes a special kind of chutzpah to come here, ask for help from highly skilled & experienced people who give their time w/o compensation in the name of 'community' and then bad-mouth everyone who doesn't agree w/ your 'position'.

Here is some solid reading for you since the manual isn't satisfying.

[Muizen]

.An ironic comment, given that all but one of your comments have grammatical or spelling errors.

Isn't it somewhat childish that Rhossydd now starts talking about grammatical errors in my English!
I could write in perfect Dutch and German, in good French and reasonable Spanish.
But I wonder whether this gentleman could read any of these other languages?

I can't see what my "grammatical errors" have to do with this poorly edited "Epson Pro 3880 User Manual"?

Harry

[Rhossydd]

But I wonder whether this gentleman could read any of these other languages?

No, but I wouldn't be so impudent as to criticise documents written in languages I don't understand.

[Mark D Segal]

Harry - thanks for finally telling us you've been using a 3800 for six years. It's virtually the same printer as a 3880, so it puts you in a yet better position to simply stop complaining and follow my advice: use it, and if it fails you, return it. Let us not waste more time on this. At least no more of mine will be so wasted.

Syd and Harry: Basta! Time to depersonalize the discussion and get back to business.

The manual is what it is. Epson printer manuals are generally quite helpful - whether masterpieces of perfection or not doesn't really matter; they generally provide the essential instructions one needs to use the printers, and there are plenty of other resources on the internet in case they fail to meet your specific needs. There are things in this life worth obsessing about and others not, and IMHO this is not one of them.

[Eric Brody]

I'm with Mark. Personal comments, re language or other irrelevant issues are just cheap shots.
The OP seems not to "get it."
Further discussion seems to be starting to resemble bashing one's head against the wall, it feels good to stop.

[Doombrain]

Only critical updates make it to CD, as for the paper guides they do what they were designed for.
Software updates for minor bugs and trying to keep up with Mac software are served via the web as are updated manuals, it's 2015.

What's important is the ink as referenced by almost everyone above. The hardware you've paid for will still do the job you wish it to hence why you paid your money.

[bjanes]

I just received my "new" Epson 3880.

After unpacking I find a CD with software to be installed on my iMac( which runs on OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks).
The CD is identified as being for "Mac OS X Lion", an OS that is many years old!
Most files on this CD are also dated October 2011 approx. 4 years old!

Is it correct to conclude from this outdated Epson 3880 software" that this is not really a new printer but one that has been sitting on shelves for approx. four years?
Should I accept this 4 year old printer or bring this printer back to the dealer?
Harry

Now that you have an excuse to return the printer, you might consider doing so since the 3880 has just been discontinued and replaced by the P800 (see here). I have been using the 3880 for several years and have been pleased with its output quality and trouble free operation until recently when the photo black channel went out completely. I took it to the local Epson approved repair facility where they replaced the ink assembly for US $380.

I considered junking it and buying the P800 but it won't be out until June and I had a considerable supply of ink (both unused cartridges and cartridges in the printer with a considerable amount of ink) so I decided to have the printer repaired. The technician told me this is a very common occurrence with the 3880 and 90% of the repairs that they perform on the 3880 are for this problem. He predicted that the printer would be good for another 3 years until the ink assembly fails again.

I don't know if Epson has addressed this problematic ink assembly when they designed the P800.

Bill

[Farmer]

90% of failures could be related to 1% of all machines...