Tony Sleep wrote:
>> The fact that the service contract is so expensive tells you how reliable
>> Polaroid thinks these things are. I have a similar contract for my
>> Cornerstone p1700 21" monitor, which costs almost as much as the SS4000. The
>> price of the contract? $35.
>
>
> Yeah, but fixing a monitor will usually be a quick swap-out of a board, if done by a
> mfr, electromechanical bits aren't often so modular and require more workshop time.
>
I'll challenge that ;-)
Monitors require major realignment after some types of repair. In fact,
a lot of repairs require no parts and just resetting of internal
adjustments. This stuff can take a fair amount of time, even with
computer assisted re-calibration, especially since there so many
resolutions within one monitor these days, and this can make labor costly.
Much of CRT manufacturing technology is so well perfected (even if the
actually CRT technology itself isn't) that, in general, if these things
leave the factory in good shape, and aren't damaged during shipping,
they work for years. Admittedly, I have seen more bad solder joints than
I care to acknowledge, due to heat stress, poor ventilation design, or
poor use of solder alloy, but that's in older low end products, but in
the last few years a lot of these problems appear to have lessened.
Obviously, the SS4000 is not a "low end product", and the ones that keep
on chugging prove the fact that they can leave the factory in a state
that allows them to work "flawlessly" for many cycles.
So... what's going on here? I suggest the problem is lack of quality
control, or designs requiring such tight tolerances that they can barely
be kept during the manufacturing and construction. Obviously, the
SS4000 is a great scanner; that's something almost everyone agrees upon.
However, it is also obvious that the production goes through "spells"
of units which are either manhandled on the way from Asia to their final
homes, or, are out of spec when they leave the factory, and slowly
self-destruct.
Our television (A Toshiba) is now over 25 years old. It has never been
services... not once and it is still fully functional, other than a very
slightly higher contrast image. It came with a 5 year parts and labor,
10 year parts warranty, as I recall. Now, it doesn't have any moving
parts, like scanners do, but obviously Toshiba knew they has a well
designed product that wasn't likely to be a liability to them even 10
years later.
Seems to me, Polaroid knows how costly these units can be to "support",
and charges high rates to cover themselves on extended warranty. I
believe extended warranty fees are a good indication of cost of upkeep,
and statistical possibility of failure.
Art
