I have a minor update on my struggle with HP: I was told this morning by my field tech that HP is not aware of any problems with pinch roller marks and does not have a redesign in the works. Since he is generally a pretty noncommittal guy, this didn't come from the field tech. HP will, however, try to figure out what issue I'm having, if I send them a sample print on HP paper, as I'm the only person worldwide that has reported this issue.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, I paid a trip to Calumet to discuss (and hopefully photograph) their new rollers in their 24" Z3100. My contact there was a little nonplussed by my asking him about the rollers again, since I didn't buy the printer from him, and didn't seem keen on my taking a photo. He did, however, graciously agree to email me the Word document he was sent with roller installation instructions. It is obviously an internal document from Barcelona and could not look more pre-release than it does, but it has details of the whole installation process. I was also told that the rollers were sent directly from Spain to the US office that is responsible for printers in San Diego, then on to Calumet.
I'm willing to give HP the benefit of the doubt regarding their intentionally lying about the roller development, and can easily imagine that the techs at the first and second levels are not aware of anything in the pre-release pipeline. The part about being the first to report this issue, though . . .
Thankfully, I was also given the names of three HP employees with knowledge of the new design (Jacint Humet, Joe Sandoval and Lee Kundal, if that helps anyone else's case). I have no idea what their jobs titles are, but forwarded the installation instructions and these three names to my field tech to pursue further. I'm hoping this will provide a little traction in this odd corporate dance. For some possibly misguided reason, I'm keeping the faith.
-Ron H.
PS: The same person from Calumet suggested that I pursue this through the dealer that sold me my printer, on the sales side vs. through tech channels. I've had no contact with my dealer whatsoever, and it never occurred to me to go through them, but he said that he got results by contacting the National Sales Manager for HP, so I will try a multi-pronged attack from here on.