In a news item published on this website on Tuesday, October 23, OKI Data issued a consumer warning about clone printers, saying that several companies in Canada and the U.S. are altering OKI Data Office Printers and may be misleading consumers to believe that these clone printers are original OKI Data Digital Transfer products. It went on to say that these clone printers are not covered by OKI Data’s warranties, not eligible for OKI Data service, will not receive firmware or driver updates or consumables, supplies, spare parts and more. A recent letter issued to its customers by Joseph A Dovi, COO of UniNet Imaging (Hawthorne, California), one of the companies linked to the clones, said the following:
“To Our Valued Customers: UniNet is aware of the recent communication from Oki entitled ‘Consumer Warning.’ UniNet values the Intellectual Property rights of its own inventors and of other companies. While we previously had utilized Oki-based engines in two versions of our transfer printers, it should be noted that the iColor 500 has since been replaced by the newer iColor 550 which is NOT based on Oki technology. This new model is capable of faster speeds and higher quality as compared to the C711 series, which is now 8-year-old technology. UniNet printers are improved versions of the original base engine, not clones. They are sold with our branding clearly on the machine, packaging, manuals, software and supplies. We are in no way misleading customers into believing our products are anything other than our printers, and covered by our own warranty and support infrastructure.
UniNet alone is responsible for the warranty and support of our products. In fact, UniNet provides a far more extensive and comprehensive warranty through our own offices around the world and our vast dealer network which has been thoroughly trained to provide world-class service and support. Our customers have the ability to interact with us via free phone support or through our online portal where they can find detailed instructions, helpful support videos, and live support via remote PC control. UniNet is not engaged in any legal dispute with Oki. Rest assured our products are IP safe, as we have been granted 6 U.S. patents on our exclusive conversion process and have many other patents pending in the U.S. and Europe that allow us to make our advanced printers with their unique “5 in 1” technology, replacing the need to have several printers (white overprinting/white underprinting/fluorescent color printing/sublimation printing/CMYK printing). UniNet has been granted several international certifications including the important CE certification needed for exporting to Europe.
Contrary to what has been communicated, UniNet printers do indeed receive firmware and driver updates, and our white toner is certified safe, and thus has a full Material and Safety Data sheet available. UniNet has been in the toner manufacturing business for nearly 30 years. With 15 global sales and distribution centers, our toner products are inside millions of printers around the globe. UniNet has shipped thousands of our innovative white toner printers worldwide in the past 5 years and has some exciting new releases planned for 2019. We look forward to continuing to serve our existing customers and will continue to make many new ones in the coming years.”
UniNet responds to OKI Data’s recent consumer warning
