Interesting question. I am a retired bum who spends most of my time these days making and printing photographs. I do not sell or market. I just have fun.
I have had a P900 for about six months. I sold my working 3880 because I wanted the ability to switch matte and glossy instantly with no ink and time waste. The P900 has worked well until about three weeks ago when it decided even slightly thick papers, like Canson Platine, would not feed properly though the rear (top) feed. I read and re-read the Epson manual as well as Mark Segal's superb 92 page review of it on PhotoPXL (highly recommended for any P900 owner). I took some paper to the local store where I purchased the printer and it seemed to feed the Platine just fine with their demo P900. My conclusion is that there's a problem with the printer.
I then called Epson Tech Support who were friendly but not very helpful. Essentially he said to use the front feed. That does work but the front feed is a slower and more tedious process, and according to the authorities should be used only for paper >0.5mm (Platine is 0.43mm). When I said that didn't seem right for a $1,000 printer that is only six months old, the response was that I could get a new printer, but... it would be a refurbished unit and he did not recommend that approach. When I shared that info with Mark Segal, he also was not in favor of the refurbished approach, no guarantee I'd not be back where I started.
Where I am now is gently pushing on the paper and it will usually feed but I'm not comfortable with that either. There is no question in my mind that the 3880 was better built than the P900. The P900 prints are quite lovely and it really is nice to be able to decide to switch paper easily but with looking back, I probably should have stuck with the 3880 and its exorbitant ink costs, or gotten a P5000, which won't switch paper surfaces so easily but whose capacious ink cartridges make it cheap enough to switch whenever I'd want.
My ongoing fantasy was to have a 24" printer but the Epson 7570 has gotten lots of criticism and the consistent opinion seems to be that the larger printers such as the P6000 and 7000, even the P5000, need to be run regularly or they clog. I know the Epson's have gotten better. I've used Epson since the 1270 dye printer. I don't often print large, for me 13x20 is a big print and like many, I have limited wall space. I would consider Canon but really like to use the QTR RIP for my monochrome prints and it runs only on Epson printers. Also I'm sure Canons have their own set of problems too though I do not have experience with them.
I've considered an extended warranty for my P900, a year is $179, and may just do that, but then I'm back with the refurbished approach if I have more problems. No one mentions repair for these printers. Are we at the point where $1K products are disposable?
